Please share your home buying experience

Without getting into personal specifics, can you share how during the mortgage process, you thought you'd be turned down, but then got approved? I feel like I'm on a rollercoaster ride!

Re: Please share your home buying experience

we got turned down at th first mortgage place here was the scenario

we gave banker all of our info
she put info in a computer
she slid a paper out of a monthly mortgage and asked "can u afford this?"
we slid it back and said "no"

a month later we went to a different bank that had a great program for 1st time buyers and we are now in our lovely home and i am more than happy

if you need info on who we used FM me.

Re: Please share your home buying experience

well, our mortgage guy is really good. He works quickly... We haven't started the formal mortgage application process, though. We only received a pre-approval letter.

The credit check situation was fine, (although we discovered sallie mae is sloppy about registering completed re-payment & consolidation of student loans.... with BOTH OF US. Others considering applying for a mortgage might want to make sure all paid loans are stated as such on your credit record.... we unfortunately DIDN'T do that beforehand.)

He DID have a hang-up about any former jobs that didn't generate a W2.... He felt uneasy about student stipend, and me once being a post-doc and being declared as a 'contractor' with a 1099 form (vs W2) since I was paid from a grant at that time. This makes me nervous, since I have no control with how my employer declares me to the IRS.

I really have empathy for genuine contractors... I bet the mortgage process is really for them. At least we can say we both currently receive W2's!

Message edited 8/16/2007 2:50:54 PM.

Re: Please share your home buying experience

Thanks for the responses so far. I'm keeping the faith, just nervous.

Re: Please share your home buying experience

If it's your first time, it's a little scary because you don't know the ropes. Our condo purchase was very hairy and we lost out on mortgages because of the type of property it was.

Just stay on top of them and don't be afraid to research rates and learn all you can.

Re: Please share your home buying experience

wow, i didn't know it's harder to get a mortgage for a condo than a house...
Wonder why that is?

Re: Please share your home buying experience

Posted by marriedinportjeff

wow, i didn't know it's harder to get a mortgage for a condo than a house...
Wonder why that is?

Re: Please share your home buying experience

DH & I were convinced we would not get preapproval b/c our credit history is not spotless and everyone is taking such a close look these days.

We got our preapproval and for the last 4 weeks have been moving through the final approval stage. From talking to girls I'm friends with off the boards that have purchased homes in the last 6-8 months, I know what I'm going through right now is typical, but it is certainly a roller coaster with document request after document request. I keep wondering why they didn't ask for this stuff months and months ago.

Re: Please share your home buying experience

we had a very smooth buying experience. Luckily we new up front how much we could afford per month (even though we got approved for 50K over what we paid). We didn't want to go house broke.

We used HSBC, easy throughout the whole process.

Re: Please share your home buying experience

Until the day we got our committment letter, I was was in a constant state of panic that we would not get approved for the mortgage!!

It is very stressful, you are definitely not alone.

Re: Please share your home buying experience

I'm not worried about our credit history, since both are very clean... I'm worried about my car loan
I have another 3 years and 3 months on it, and the payments are pretty high.... (but my employment is garanteed during that period). I hope it doesn't affect our application. We DID get pre-approved really fast for 30k more purchase price and 2400/year more in taxes than the home we're trying to get in contract for... I hope that hints that they won't consider this to be 'too much house' for us.........

Re: Please share your home buying experience

i'm an accountant so i'm always on top of what we can afford, so i felt ok that we'd be approved. but than our co-op did not sell and we needed 100% financing- that def changed the game but thankfully we got it. now the co-op is in contract and we're in the home stretch for closing on the house- so it all really does work out in the end.

FYI- when i bought my co-op i was a nervous wreck! everyone i dealt with was always like, oh i can tell your a first time home buyer, hehe. it's better the second time around cause you know the process.

Re: Please share your home buying experience

Thanks so much everyone. It really helps to know you're not alone in the process. Our credit rating is pretty good. We don't have skyhigh balances, but we are paying an old tax bill that's pretty high. We pay a set amount every month and are always on time with it. You think it'll be okay? Does anyone actually personally KNOW a loan officer who can answer this question definitively?

Message edited 8/17/2007 8:23:56 PM.

Re: Please share your home buying experience

I wouldn't worry about it too much, becuase we were pre-approved for monthly payments 23% higher than what our mortgage will likely be.... and our actual payment is what we would be able to comfortably afford, NOT the approved amount.... so it seems the bankers only want to screen out the obviously out of reach mortgage payments....

Message edited 8/17/2007 9:47:29 PM.

Re: Please share your home buying experience

Posted by SweetTooth

Until the day we got our committment letter, I was was in a constant state of panic that we would not get approved for the mortgage!!

It is very stressful, you are definitely not alone.

Re: Please share your home buying experience

Re: Please share your home buying experience

My advice would be to deal directly with a bank or credit union rather than a broker for your mortgage. We used a credit union and had a very smooth process. We had worries about what we could afford and to be honest we are not saving much now that we have a house. In the current mortgage climate, I think a lot of the creative financing options (e.g., ARM's, 100% financing, etc.) are going to start to fade.