When I originally started the home buying journey, I had decided to build with a nationally known company after they told me that I would have a home in November, December at the latest if there were delays, which worked perfect with my lease ending mid-January. Well, there were delays upon delays before they even broke ground and when the estimated finish date was late March, I cancelled the contract. I expected to lose the $1000 deposit, but they surprised me and gave it back.
So I went house hunting. My agent is a good friend and I found something I liked quickly and put in an offer on 9/17. After negotiations, I signed the sales contract on 9/18. My loan application was submitted on 9/19 (FHA 30 year fixed with 3.5% down, locked in rate at 4.5 on 10/1). Appraisal was ordered on 9/20 and came back on 9/30. My loan was approved with conditions on 9/30. The last condition was requested on 10/9, so it went into final underwriting on 10/10. I got final approval 10/15. I got utilities arranged to be hooked up and wired the money needed at closing wired today. I close this Friday at 9:00am.
Just some background on me. I a single woman. I make $60,000 year and got preapproved for $200,000. I'm buying my house for $199,000 and the sellers are contributing $6000 towards closing. I filed bankruptcy in 2005 and have no other baddies. My lender-pulled credit score when I did the application was 692. I do not have student loans but have a car payment of $630/month. My LO only went back 4 months for inquiries and the only inquiries on my report were the ones from the build I was originally planning. My cc utilization through the process was about 1-2%.
I found the process to be easy and so much quicker than I expected. The only hiccup I had concerned gift money. My donor wanted to give me cash which I knew wouldn't work so I had him deposit it in into his bank and give me a cashier's check. Unfortunately, the account he deposited into was not the account he primarily uses - it was just the closest one to him at that time. It is an account that he keeps little money in and uses for "fun money". I had to submit his bank statement and do a LOE and it all turned out ok. I love my LO, who came highly recommended from my agent.
My suggestions to those of you contemplating buying a home: watch your inquiries for at least 6 months (a year if possible) before applying. Make sure your utilization is as low as possible. Keep an eye on your CRs to make sure everything is reporting correctly. Make sure that any gift money received is truly a gift (and not a loan) and that there is a paper trail for it unless you are getting it well before two months prior for applying for a mortgage. Make sure you are fast at responding to LO or UW questions and requests for information. Keep reading this forum and don't be afraid to ask questions, either here or to your LO.
I learned a lot on here and appreciate everyone's advise and input. Congrats to all of you new homeowners and good luck to those of you who are thinking about or in the process of buying a home.
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