topic Re: My NACA Journey Beginnings in Mortgage Loans

My NACA Journey Beginnings

Anonymous — Sun, 26 Jul 2015 17:26:11 GMT

Below follows my log of experience with NACA from when I first heard about it, had my intake session, to being qualified. I decided to give them a shot because while my mortgage FICO scores are in the 660-680 range, much of my available cash would be used for an FHA loan down payment. NACA has a 15year mortage program where I can buy down my interest rate to 0.0625%. Even with 0.5% (my current plan), for the price range I'm looking, I'd end up saving about $150k in interest compared to a 30 year loan, own the home in 15 years, with monthly payments not that different from what the 30yr FHA would be with PMI.

The TLDR version of what follows (because it is pretty long), qualified in 1 month 1 week with about 2-3 weeks of the time being delays due to tech issues, my region's NACA office being severely understaffed, and holiday/vacations (around the July 4th weekend). I've seen good stories and bad. NACA is far perfect, but if you are well prepared, patient, proactive, and are in an area with motivated and competent people, you can get through pretty quickly. Plus, it didn't help that many other options also have a similar number of pissed customers (so, if I lost a month or so to NACA, I really didn't care).

Early May 2015

First heard about NACA. Researched them, saw a lot of the complaints and quickly concluded most of truly negative ones were from people who did not get a loan modification or who gave up on the qualification process due to either a very specific need [wanted a home faster that NACA could handle] or unwilling to go through the process [demonstrate payment shock, provide all requested documentation, etc]. The vast majority either simply did not seem to understand the program, requirements, or have functioning knowledge of the process, despite presumably all of them having the handbook. Anyway, I downloaded the handbook, read through it multiple times, filled out the budget, and convinced myself that it would be a great opportunity for me. I’m not in a hurry, I have all the required documentation and savings, want to buy within their purchase price limits, skilled at navigating bureaucracy (so long as I’m not facing strong active opposition), and I have lots of patience.

May 16, 2015

Attended the workshop at Highlands Ranch library run by Ms. Padilla. Didn’t learn too much that I didn’t already know about the program. Did learn that Denver apparently just has one MC (the woman giving the talk). She said they’d hired two more, but those two wouldn’t be “active” for weeks. Likely will have everyone do remote counseling to start though if you talked to her, she would fast track a face to face appointment. I did, writing on my form and confirming with her that I wanted a face to face ASAP.

May 20, 2015

Got the emails from NACA. Logged into webfile. Uploaded all documents (as pdf). Filled out all authorizations and submitted membership and credit check fee as electronic check. Completed as many profile forms as I could including budget, housing, employment.

I created a dropbox folder for NACA. Within it I created folders by type such as “Taxes”, “Accounts”, “Misc”, “Pay”, “Rent”, and “LOE”. The Misc folder is for NACA specific forms and other one-off documents. For example, I uploaded copies of the employment form, housing form, and budget worksheets. Every file I scan or download gets uploaded here after being sent to my webfile. There are folders for my credit accounts as well and copies of documents that are related or tangential to my finances - even if NACA doesn’t need them. For the ones NACA doesn’t need, I don’t email to my webfile. But, all those files are available so that should I suddenly need to provide information, I can access it easily on my phone or tablet to email or print on the spot. Google drive, microsoft’s offering, or anything else that provides you convenient online access to your files that integrates well with your phone is a good idea - particularly for those who have smartphones.

May 27, 2015

Called the Denver office and was able to verbally secure an intake session for June 5, 2015 at 9am. Should be receiving an email to confirm. Rep answering the phone indicated that there was only one MC and she was not scheduling intake sessions. Though after I told her about the fast-track conversation at the Highlands Ranch workshop and gave her my details (name), she scheduled me. Just checked email and got confirmation for intake session. Confirmed my appointment online. Electronic check also processed today.

June 1, 2015

I determined that using the email submission is the most reliable way to upload documents. The webfile shows the last 5 uploaded documents. It has a date and a number of pages. PDFs submitted through the webfile show up with dates, but no page information. PDFs submitted via email show up with both dates and email. My experience emailing docs show that they tend to get processed within 30 minutes. As-in within 30 minutes of sending the email, I see the update in my webfile. Using email for document submission is highly recommended by Tim Trumbell, the current online NACA rep as well. I resubmitted all documents again using my submission email address.

June 5, 2015

Had my intake meeting. The NACA software doesn't make it easy for counselors to see what you've uploaded. Essentially, they just see a list of files whose names are the date for when they were submitted. So, they have to open each, check what's in the file, then copy it to the correct place in your actual file, either the file or date from the file. It appears copying the file is also not streamlined. They have to print then scan the file into NACA's system again. For everyone that complains about having to resend stuff, I can see how it can be a nightmare for counselors to find a file when your submission grows to 20 or 100+ files. The best you can do is tell your MC the date of the submission so they can narrow down the manual search window. However, I'm guessing most people aren't that savvy so MCs have figured out that resending makes things easier since the new document is now at the top of the list. Imagine, after looking through 20 bank statements, they start to blur together or you accidentally clicked the wrong one while scrolling down the list and never notice you missed one.

Anyway, I helped by producing paper copies of files she had a hard time finding. One, I didn't submit at all - they needed a copy of a statement that I didn't think was required so I logged in on my phone, downloaded the statement, and emailed it to her. With the workload MCs face, they really appreciate having someone who is well organized. She was the only MC at the office and pretty much admitted that my being organized was the only reason she agreed to make my appointment so soon, prioritizing working with me over her many other current files because she was confident I wouldn't take up much time. When I saw how much time was spent navigating the software to enter and confirm details, I can understand. She had a ridiculous amount of work on her plate and I'm glad that I could streamline a lot of that for her.

The only thing holding me up from being submitted to NACA underwriting is receipt of my employment verification which should be sent in sometime this afternoon. I was proactive about getting landlord letters, writing LOEs for credit issues. My savings for one month was a little low due to making a large lump tax payment but I had those details ready do she didn't have to waste time double checking. My bringing it up was enough to jog her memory from reading through my statements. So, because of that, my file reflects that I’ve demonstrated the requisite 3 months of payment shock. I also already have the MRF though that’s not necessarily required to be submitted for NACA qualification.

All in all, I'm pleased with how things went and if underwriting goes well without any hiccups, I could be NACA approved in time for Thursday's arrived buyer session.

June 8, 2015

Got email from MC advising that she’d received the employment verification and was working on submitting my file. That it could be 7-10 days in underwriting. This is a bit different from her tone last week, but I’d be lucky to have sailed through that quickly anyway. She also left a voicemail asking for explanation of a deposit in January 2015. I replied via email that evening and emailed the document to my web-file.

June 16, 2015

Since my last update I’ve gotten my 2014 IRS transcripts, security deposit refund check, and new checking account statement. I deposited the check to my savings account. I’ll upload a copy of the check and accompanying letter at the end of the month when my new savings account statement is available. Yesterday, I called my MC to get an update on my qualification and left a voicemail. I followed up with an email. This morning, I emailed her to let her know I’ve uploaded the IRS transcripts and updated checking account statement. She responded indicating receipt of my email, but provided no additional information about my qualification. I followed her response with another email about qualification.

At the end of my intake session on 6/5, my file was pretty complete and from statements currently made on the NACA forum, underwriting typically only takes a couple days. My MC also stated to me 6/5 that she’d submit my file either that afternoon if my employment verification was received in time or 6/8. Her voicemail on 6/8 suggested (and email explicitly said) that she had all the necessary information to get my file submitted. However, not hearing anything or getting a response to my voicemail 6/15 or email (which to be fair is understandable given her workload), I called member services today to get some details on my qualification. According to the rep that I spoke to, I’ve definitely not been submitted for qualification. The rep said she’ll send an email to my MC to follow up with me and also schedule another appointment.

June 17, 2015

I got an email this morning from my MC. She said that she was not able to submit my file until Friday (I assume 6/12). There was a glitch and the underwriter was unable to view the information so she had to redo everything (I assume this means yesterday or today). I should have an answer next week.

I logged into my account but didn’t see anything new or different on the status page. I’ll wait until next week Tuesday or Wednesday before calling my MC (and/or member services) to check on the status.

June 23, 2015

I’d logged into my webfile a few times since last week and didn’t see anything that looked new or different on the status page. This morning I called member services again to check the status of my qualification and was told once again that my file has not been submitted to underwriting. This time, the rep forwarded my information to James Kimmons, a regional manager, to look into what’s going on with my file.

June 24, 2015

As if to pile on the bad news, late last night I noticed that my checking account had gone negative. I transferred enough to cover it, but it was past the cutoff for the day. This happened because I accidentally selected my checking account instead of my savings account as the funding source for shares in an IPO through my investment account a couple days earlier. I called my bank because I knew I'd enabled overdraft protection soon after opening the account. Apparently, a mistake was made and they only enabled overdraft protection on my debit card transactions and not on all transactions. The bank immediately corrected this and offered to waive any fees I might incur as a result of the overdraft. Hopefully, a LOE is enough for this situation and it doesn't derail my NACA process.

June 25, 2015

As I’ve not yet received any follow-up email or calls from NACA, I called my MC and left a voicemail message. I followed that up with an email pretty much outlining what I heard from the member services rep on the 23rd and reiterating my readiness and willingness to go to bad on my own behalf if there are issues with my file that she’s facing. I’ll call member services again tomorrow and depending on how that goes, email Tim Trumble if there’s still no update or definite forward motion.

June 26, 2015

After calling (and getting the voicemail of my MC), I called member services again. The rep that I spoke with, Donna, said there were recent updates to my file. She was able to “link” (I suspect that’s the name of their internal IM software) to my MC and ask her for a status update. My MC responded that my file is in underwriting, but so far nothing back. I’m cautiously optimistic that I’ll finally have an update by next week. I can only wonder if a regional director push had anything to do with it.

Logging into my account this evening, I noticed a change. Before, on the status page, my minimum required funds and NACA budget showed incomplete. Today, that was gone and replaced with a “click to view” link. So I did. My minimum required funds looked correct, so I completed the electronic signature on that page. Looking through the NACA budget page highlighted a lot of errors. I sent an email to my MC with the errors and the correct values. I’ll also follow up with a call Monday since it’s now past business hours.

I realize that some items are per my MC’s interpretation of my bank statements. But these values are from things that are pretty clear cut: My monthly rent (about $2000 too high), my total student loan balances and monthly payments (total balance $30k higher, monthly payment about $100 higher), and my total personal loan balances and monthly payments (balances over $3k higher, payments about $100 higher). The rent discrepancy is the one that hits the hardest as it skyrockets my debt ratio from being around 11% to 41%. Because my rent is incorrect, my payment shock is computed incorrectly. By my own calculations, my payment shock (PITI - current rent) should be around $1900/mo not $0! I’m starting to feel that cautious optimism wane. I may need another week or two for the errors to be corrected and things to cycle back through underwriting.

June 29, 2015

I called my MC and left a voicemail reiterating the errors that I saw in my web-file under NACA budget (after checking my file again to verify that was still the case). I’ll probably call member services tomorrow to see whether there is a way I can have it corrected or if that needs to go through my MC if I don’t see any change tomorrow.

June 30, 2015

Before I had a chance to call or check on things, I got an email from my MC (which was a reply to my previous one RE the errors on the NACA budget in my web-file). The underwriters came back asking for canceled rent checks. They did not accept the landlord letter. I emailed those immediately from my Dropbox while at work. This is another example of where having documents available through an online source is helpful. I have instant access to all documents that I need. Also, remember that while I uploaded these to my webfile over a month ago, I’ve uploaded a lot of documents. It would take 15-20 minutes for my MC to look through all those documents at this point not only to search for the canceled rent checks but also to compile a complete set. Much easier for me to just provide all documents at the very instant they are required. These, were emailed directly to my MC. But even if they went through the web-file, she’d only have to look through submissions for today as opposed to having to search back through all the ones in the past.

I got a response about 15 minutes later saying she’d submitted the info to the underwriters and hopefully I’d be approved by Thursday. I logged into my web-file and saw my NACA budget still hadn’t been fixed, but perhaps I can wait a bit before pushing on that front.

Re: My NACA Journey Beginnings

Anonymous — Sun, 26 Jul 2015 17:26:32 GMT

July 2, 2015

I checked my web-file and email but nothing new so getting qualified is definitely not happening this week. Hopefully I'll get there next week. Then I can start the process of waiting for homes I like to show up on the market. It would be nice to get this done during the summer, but work and life may end up pushing things into the fall. The upside is I'll have more savings by then and probably won't feel a need to tap into my IRA at all.

July 6, 2015

I got busy at work so I wasn’t able to check on things till late in the afternoon. No new emails or changes to my web-file. When I called my MC, it went straight to voicemail. It was also too late to talk to Member Services so I’ll try again tomorrow for an update. I did email my MC to let her know I’d uploaded my latest paystub, IRA and Savings account statements, and copies of the security deposit check and letter that accompanied it as explanation for the large check deposit.

July 7, 2015

Got my MC’s voicemail again so I left a message. Called member services and got a message saying it was past business hours. The message doesn’t exactly specify what those hours are. It says “Our normal business hours are between 8:30AM to 5:30PM local time” which of course varies from place to place. It was 3:30pm my time (mountain). The direct member services line has a 425 area code placing their local time as pacific. So perhaps their member services local time is really eastern time. Anyway, I’ll try again tomorrow. Just need to not get so distracted at work.

In other news, I just got an email today saying the Denver office has a new MC. Presumably, that means we now have two. Hopefully, that means things will move a bit more timely over the next couple weeks before his queue gets filled by what I’m sure is a large backlog. There was also an email advertising that NACA is looking for Denver mortgage counselors, so I’m sure plenty of hiring still to go.

July 8, 2015

Got an email from my MC saying that we should have a response by “Friday” (July 10, 2015). So, I guess I’ll wait some more.

July 10, 2015

With nothing from my MC, I called member services. The agent told me that my file was submitted to underwriting on July 7th. This was news to me as I expected the last submission to have been on June 30th. He confirmed that it was submitted on June 30th but the underwriters came back with conditions (again?) which resulted in another submission on July 7th. I guess my MC was able to find the info this time in my web-file since she didn’t contact this time. I’d have appreciated her mentioning this in the email on the 8th Anyway, with no response today, the 3rd day after the last submission (and it being close to 5:30pm eastern), the next response from the underwriters will likely be on Monday.

July 11, 2015

Not really a NACA update but today I went out to physically look at a couple houses. I’ve been checkings homes out on Zillow to get a feel for different areas, things I’d like, dislike. Things have evolved since the first time I looked (several months ago). I now have a better idea of what I’d want in a house though today showed me that I still haven’t done enough research to say nail down what particular areas I’d like. The good news is that my sense from pictures more or less matches my sense from a real-life walk through, so I’m more confident about making gut check decisions simply from description + pictures.

I know NACA advises you not to “shop” before being qualified but I don’t have attachment problems. I certainly understand the advice. Over the past few months I’ve shown friends examples of houses with things or layouts I liked and seen them fall in love with homes over and over. . .and they’re not even buying! For me it’s been useful. I now have a pretty detailed list of things I absolutely want, things that would be great, and things that immediately remove a home from my consideration. I’ve found for me it’s good to have this information before the true “shopping” period (I’ve done this when buying cars, looking for a new job, apartment to rent) as it tempers emotions when presented with what may seem to be a really good deal.

I think the long window has also helped bring more things into focus. If I was ready 3 months ago to buy a house, I’d probably have chosen something that fit my short term likes and interest and may not have been a great long term choice. Also, during the long window, I’ve seen plenty of “great” and “perfect” homes come and go. So from my perspective, it doesn’t matter if the recent set sell before I qualify because likely there will be another few on the market within a month anyway.

July 13, 2015

After getting my MC’s voicemail I called member services to check whether there was a response from the underwriters. The agent who handled my call said she couldn’t see anything and just referred me back to my MC for more information. I asked if she could specifically see what the underwriter response was or when and she said no. This seems a bit strange given my last couple conversations with member services but I’ll wait to see if I get an email today or tomorrow morning before trying again. I also tried to ask a question about outside real estate agents but she just cut that off and told me to reserve such questions for my MC so I didn’t see any point pushing her further for more information.

July 14, 2015

I left a voicemail for my MC then called member services. This time I asked “When was my file last submitted to underwriting”? I was told “July 7th” and the status still showed “pending”. So, as there is no response yet from the underwriters, there is nothing for my MC to do (or update to provide me). Perhaps this longer wait means I’ll be qualified by Thursday.

July 16, 2015

Got an email this morning saying that I’ve been qualified! I’ll get the details this evening. It’s time for stage 2! Though due to timing issues with my agent, I won’t attend the qualification meeting until next week. So, that gives me time to put what I’ve learned to use via MLS searches!

July 19, 2015

Looked at some houses with my realtor including one from last weekend (with a tree house) which has dropped $15k since I saw it and one which I liked as much from pictures (has a pool and a really nice kitchen) and wanted to see in person. Turns out, I like them as much in real life. Both have been on/off the market since May (or earlier). Talking to the listing agents, the pool house went under contract that day (while we were touring)? The other - no offers yet. So, it looks like my decision may have been made for me.

Which is cool because after seeing them both today, they are different enough that it’s really hard choosing between the two. One’s pro is the other’s con and vice versa. This is a case where an outside opinion would be typically be helpful. Or some other deciding event This week looks to be an exciting one!

July 20, 2015

Called the real estate department to check that my realtor details had been processed. It hadn’t but the agent got it while I was on the line and told me she’ll enter it to my file immediately. 20-30 minutes later I got the email to confirm my outside agent selection. A few hours after doing that, I called back and went through the process to ensure that was also updated on my account.

July 23, 2015

Went to the qualification workshop. Took that opportunity to get answers on things I was unsure about - appraisals, e-signatures (fine as you’re going back and forth negotiating but buyer must put wet signature [and initials where necessary] to final contract), why we must close at the NACA office (lenders are covering closing costs and contract with title company to provide services at an agreed upon price), property specific letters, a couple items on my web-file, lender (BoA). I also took the opportunity to find out about volunteering opportunities.

I now have my official qualification letter and first property specific letter. Now, to get the seller to accept my offer!

Re: My NACA Journey Beginnings

Anonymous — Sun, 26 Jul 2015 22:04:23 GMT

Great work - solid progress.

Being electronically organized gives you a huge advantage.

Good luck on finding the right place for you!

Re: My NACA Journey Beginnings

Anonymous — Sun, 26 Jul 2015 22:46:43 GMT

Thanks. My agent got word via email that the sellers of the house where I've put in an offer, where things have pretty much been a one sided negotiation - I offer, they counter rejecting almost everything that isn't boilerplate, I reoffer, etc, for the past week, have agreed to my latest proposal. I think the part where we said that I'll be looking at houses this weekend and may move on to something else may have helped.

So, hopefully, we'll have an executed contract by tomorrow and I can start the next phase of the journey.

Due to all the issues I've read about people having with NACA, and my own experience with my regional office being overworked, my plan has been to avoid anything that would incur extra delay. In particular, homes that need repair because that would involve either trying to negotiate with the sellers to do the repairs (and amend the contract), or rolling the costs for repairs into my loan, getting NACA approved contractor estimates, having NACA's HAND department review and approve the estimates, THEN being able to move forward with the bank submission.

Instead, if we have a contract Monday, I can order the inspection then (for sometime this week), have that submitted, pass through HAND w/ no repairs needed, and be at the bank submission stage within a couple weeks and be on my way to a 30 day close (though the contract will put it at 45 days out). Usually, the banks directly handle ordering appraisals but here, there are appraisers (well, its down to one) who specifically work the NACA jobs and my MC is able to call them directly to schedule the work. She says she can typically get it done the same week which is awesome. My agent says that in the past month, appraisals typically have been running three weeks out from when they're ordered by the bank.

Re: My NACA Journey Beginnings

Meeza24 — Sun, 31 Jan 2016 00:27:01 GMT

Thank you for the detailed summary of your process! My homebuyers workshop is March 5th. Similar to what you've done Ive already downloaded most of the required NACA forms to a google drive. I had the same trepidations you did regarding this program because all I could find in my research was negative information. Then I realized these were people who were trying to get into a house in 3 months. Im excited to read on of your journey!

Re: My NACA Journey Beginnings

Anonymous — Sun, 31 Jan 2016 00:42:37 GMT

See:

http://ficoforums.myfico.com/t5/Mortgage-Loans/My-NACA-Journey-Phase-2/m-p/4213614

and

http://ficoforums.myfico.com/t5/Mortgage-Loans/My-NACA-Journey-Steps-to-Close/m-p/4263606

Re: My NACA Journey Beginnings

Meeza24 — Sun, 31 Jan 2016 01:02:18 GMT

Glad you were finally able to close! Question for you regarding payment shock. So lets say my current rent is 1000 but my PITI would be 1300. Does that mean I only need to show savings of $300 a month for payment shock?

Re: My NACA Journey Beginnings

Anonymous — Sun, 31 Jan 2016 19:36:43 GMT

Happy that you were satisfied with NACA. I went thru the initial process. Attended the seminar, received my login info/ID, uploaded documents and paid the fee and 7mths later I have not heard a word from them! Not even a return call or email. I finally just gave up and demanded they refund my $32 fee. Congrats on your home!