My FHA process

[Anonymous]

I have enjoyed reading about others buying process on here for the past year so I thought I would post my experience here for others to follow.  Being self employed I've been told by more people than I can count that I'll never be able to buy a house so I have been nervous about the whole process. I applied for a mortgage by myself since my husbands scores are significantly lower. My mid mortgage score is 655, purchase price 295k and I'm planning to do 3.5% down on a FHA loan. DTI is 33%/51%. Approved through AUS on Friday 1/6 and then began collecting the requested documents. The lender I am using does things a bit different than other lenders as they send the file to underwriting before issuing a pre-approval letter. Sent the remaining documents this morning 1/10 and then the file was sent to underwriting. Put a offer on a house shortly after. Received notification this afternoon that our offer was accepted!  Received a call tonight from our realtor who had spoken to the LO who said the file was approved and released from underwriting this evening. I should get the list of conditions tomorrow, hoping the list is short since the file went through underwriting so quickly. I know one will be 2016 tax transcripts. Before submitting to underwriting they went ahead and asked me for a LOE for late payments, bank statements, etc. We are shooting for a Feb 28 closing date which means I will most likely be in a state of worry for the next 45+ days but God willing at the end of Feb I will be able to report a happy ending  

[Anonymous]

Congratulations on your approval and good luck on your underwriting process.

[StartingOver10]

Congratulations - I love it when the buyer has gone through underwriting upfront so there are no unknown issues

This is the fun part now....I hope you find just the right place to buy. You have worked hard to get to this point. Now enjoy looking for your new home.

[Anonymous]

Thanks! Our offer was accepted yesterday so now it's just a waiting game Trying to decide if we should lock now (would have to pay a bit more for a 45 day lock) or wait for the 30 day mark and hope rates don't go back up in the meantime. Spoke with the LO this morning and he said he has never lost a loan after this point so hoping we don't break that streak! Waiting for email with list of conditions now

[Anonymous]

Got my list of conditions back and nothing too painful!  They did ask for a YTD P&L on my business (seems kinda odd since we are only 11 days into the year). Is this common? They mentioned I would need to submit another one (updated) closer to closing (Feb 28th).  My income is always lower at the beginning of the year compared to the end when people are holiday shopping (I have a online sales business) so I'm hoping that doesn't cause any issues. If anyone has any experience with this I'd love to hear your input!

[Anonymous]

Decided to switch to a different lender. We went with the builders preferred lender to get 2% towards closing cost from the builder along with a $1,000 lender credit and the rate was 0.50% lower than the previous lender we were going to work with. Received pre approval from the new lender on Thursday. It definitely makes me more nervous as they don't do upfront underwriting but I've stressed so much these past few weeks that I'm just going to sit back and keep telling myself if it's meant to be everything will work out fine. The new lender seems busy and I usually have to follow up with questions I have and they don't really provide much information on what's next in the process which drives me crazy so stepping back from the process and not stressing over it is going to be the only way I don't drive myself crazy. I figure if the LO needs something he will let me know.