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Re: Getting prequalified....Wish us luck in relocating from one side of the country to the other!

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CKinNC
Member

Re: Getting prequalified....Wish us luck in relocating from one side of the country to the other!

I know this is a loaded question, but which mortgage companies are the easiest and quickest to work with? Are any of them more forgiving than others?

We're in the process of relocating from one side of the country to the other and we're trying to get a mortage. Hubby started a new job May, so we took the steps to list our house for sale right after that. We now have an offer on our current house and should close in early August. He's currently living in a temporary rental in WA while we look for something that will fit the rest of the us. We were just going to rent for a year, but the rental market out there is insane and we ran into some hiccups with that. The biggest problem is that some potential "rent related debt" from a place called First Communities showed up on a background check (but not on our credit report) and now none of the property management companies in the area will rent to us. There's no date or amount, just that we might owe them something. We've never actually rented from First Communities. The last place we rented was a short-term apartment rental back in 2010, which was later bought by First Communities. But that place has now been bought and sold twice since then, and they have no record of us. Neither does First Communities, and they're not helping at all. We've been fighting that battle for a month.

All that being said, we decided to just try to buy a house. Both of us have steady jobs with good income, the problem is our credit isn't perfect. I bought a new car in April, and apparently the dealership somehow ran my credit not once, not twice, but 16 times in one day. Not sure how much that actually impacts my score, but it's annoying. I did get the car, but had I known they were going to hit my credit like that I would not have gone there. The next big thing - we had a late mortgage payments last year. It's a long story, but the year before we had our info stolen twice and it caused us to be late on one mortgage payment while our account was frozen, but we didn't realize mortgage company didn't take the late fee when we paid it and that late fee kept rolling over even though we were paying our mortgage. I don't think it shows up as more than 30 days late at all, but it shows that we were 30 days late a few months in a row - even though we have proof that we paid the full amount each month. We got that all cleared up last July, and nothing has been late since. In addition, we've had to use our credit cards a lot this year. Our credit scores are not great - mine ranges from 620 - 640 and hubby is around 640 - 660.   I considered taking out a 401k loan or selling some stock to pay off our credit cards, but I hesitate to do anything drastic. We'll be able to pay off all of our credit card debt in early August after we close on our existing house, and we'll still have enough leftover to close on a new house if we can get a loan. (Not 20% but enough for a VA or FHA loan.)  Our debt to credit ratio should be fine since we're only asking for about half of what some places say we could afford.

Hubby talked to a mortgage broker a couple days ago and we were able to get them all the documents they asked for (W-2's, pay statements, and all that) right away. Now we're in a wait and see mode.  We found a house in the new town that we really like, so I'm hoping we'll hear something from the mortgage broker soon.  I worry about putting all our eggs in one basket though, so I'm wondering if we should apply somewhere else while we wait.  At this point the terms of the loan are the least of my concerns, I just need a place where my family can live in the very near future.

Message 1 of 4
3 REPLIES 3
StartingOver10
Moderator Emerita

Re: Getting prequalified....Wish us luck!

I moved your post to start a new thread so others could help you. I made a slight change to the title for you

Message 2 of 4
Anonymous
Not applicable

Re: Getting prequalified....Wish us luck in relocating from one side of the country to the other!


@CKinNC wrote:

I know this is a loaded question, but which mortgage companies are the easiest and quickest to work with? Are any of them more forgiving than others?

 

Direct lenders that originate nothing but mortgage loans. Avoid big box banks.

We're in the process of relocating from one side of the country to the other and we're trying to get a mortage. Hubby started a new job May, so we took the steps to list our house for sale right after that. We now have an offer on our current house and should close in early August. He's currently living in a temporary rental in WA while we look for something that will fit the rest of the us. We were just going to rent for a year, but the rental market out there is insane and we ran into some hiccups with that. The biggest problem is that some potential "rent related debt" from a place called First Communities showed up on a background check (but not on our credit report) and now none of the property management companies in the area will rent to us. There's no date or amount, just that we might owe them something. We've never actually rented from First Communities. The last place we rented was a short-term apartment rental back in 2010, which was later bought by First Communities. But that place has now been bought and sold twice since then, and they have no record of us. Neither does First Communities, and they're not helping at all. We've been fighting that battle for a month.

All that being said, we decided to just try to buy a house. Both of us have steady jobs with good income, the problem is our credit isn't perfect. I bought a new car in April, and apparently the dealership somehow ran my credit not once, not twice, but 16 times in one day. Not sure how much that actually impacts my score, but it's annoying. I did get the car, but had I known they were going to hit my credit like that I would not have gone there. The next big thing - we had a late mortgage payments last year. It's a long story, but the year before we had our info stolen twice and it caused us to be late on one mortgage payment while our account was frozen, but we didn't realize mortgage company didn't take the late fee when we paid it and that late fee kept rolling over even though we were paying our mortgage. I don't think it shows up as more than 30 days late at all, but it shows that we were 30 days late a few months in a row - even though we have proof that we paid the full amount each month. We got that all cleared up last July, and nothing has been late since. In addition, we've had to use our credit cards a lot this year. Our credit scores are not great - mine ranges from 620 - 640 and hubby is around 640 - 660.   I considered taking out a 401k loan or selling some stock to pay off our credit cards, but I hesitate to do anything drastic. We'll be able to pay off all of our credit card debt in early August after we close on our existing house, and we'll still have enough leftover to close on a new house if we can get a loan. (Not 20% but enough for a VA or FHA loan.)  Our debt to credit ratio should be fine since we're only asking for about half of what some places say we could afford.

Hubby talked to a mortgage broker a couple days ago and we were able to get them all the documents they asked for (W-2's, pay statements, and all that) right away. Now we're in a wait and see mode.  We found a house in the new town that we really like, so I'm hoping we'll hear something from the mortgage broker soon.  I worry about putting all our eggs in one basket though, so I'm wondering if we should apply somewhere else while we wait.  At this point the terms of the loan are the least of my concerns, I just need a place where my family can live in the very near future.


 

Message 3 of 4
Appleman
Valued Contributor

Re: Getting prequalified....Wish us luck in relocating from one side of the country to the other!

Some posters have had good luck with Credit Unions (but seem to have just as many horror stories).

 

I found a mortgage broker via our neighborhood app. Someone had asked who they should refinance with and there were 6 responses. I searched them all and found one that lives in the same city. Found his personal number on his companies web site and cold called him. 

 

So, another vote for a mortgage broker. I believe I just got lucky and found a good one.

Message 4 of 4
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