So I took step 1 on my journey of eliminating my hour long daily commute, and wen't into my credit union today for formal preapproval.
Brought all the needed paperwork with me, but the loan officer had to send my package out for underwriter approval since I had gaps in employment.
FICO was ~750, and put in for preapproval up to 150k, which is the list price of the more expensive of the two homes I am looking at, however my primary pick from listings is closer to 120k
Just had an end of the year raise, and showing 3 raises since I started in May can't hurt my position any. With the newest raise I am just under 36% DTI for 150k and closer to 32% on the 120k including PITI+PMI
My only worry is that I was in school prior to this position, after being laid off at the end of 2011. Started school up in May 2012 as that was the earliest that enrollment could get me started. Its all been in the same field with a steady increase in pay since 2009, but that 5 month gap of nothing and then 12 months as a full time student where my only income was UI is worrysome.
Only other thing is upfront costs, hopefully I can get the seller to cough something up, as they want 14 months of prepaid taxes, which hikes my closing from 4.5k + 5% to almost 9k + 5%. Guess im not spending any money for a while. Hopefully they will look at my income and expenses and see that the 14k I already have earmarked for this can grow by the time closing comes around for the preapproval.
Sucks that they had to send it out, since I am visiting my prime pick with my realtor tomorrow afternoon, but if it does come through underwriting It should be a stronger preapproval than something just from the loan officer. I'm thinking it would be better to wait on approval so that I can put in a stronger offer.
Told I should hear back from the CU early next week. With it being so stressful waiting for that to come through, It's going to be interesting when I am waiting on a offer to come back later, and I can't even imagine the real underwriting after that.
