Navy FCU Homebuyers Choice Pre-Approval Application

[erinbean28]

This morning on my daily follow up with the mortgage department I finally received some news on the status of my pre-approval.

Things I learned today regarding Homebuyers Choice Jumbo Loans:

Underwriter is looking for 6 months of reserve funds in bank account/401K/assets

Underwriter is looking for closing costs to be in bank account/assets/gift from family

We are tentatively pre-approved for $600,000 (we had applied for $750,000), however needed to tell the underwriter that we were going to receive a gift from our family of $19,000 to cover closing costs (only had to provide this verbally). Should we get the seller to cover our closing costs for us, then we no longer need the $19,000 in gift funds. Since we are not under contract and this has to be manually written they have to assume you will pay for everything. We are expecting to receive our pre-approval letter via email at some point tomorrow.

On a separate note, NFCU mailed us our mortgage scores and they were quite different than the Fico8 scores!

My husband: EQ 662 EX 672 TU 640

Mine: EQ 643 EX 684 TU 676

Now comes the hard part of home shopping. We live in the San Francisco Bay area (North Bay) and unfortuntely house prices up here are astronomical. Even at the $600,000 price point we are going to have a tough time finding a 3 bed 2 bath, but we are excited to be over this first hurdle!

Will continue to keep you all posted.

[Anonymous]

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@erinbean28 wrote:

This morning on my daily follow up with the mortgage department I finally received some news on the status of my pre-approval.

Things I learned today regarding Homebuyers Choice Jumbo Loans:

Underwriter is looking for 6 months of reserve funds in bank account/401K/assets

Underwriter is looking for closing costs to be in bank account/assets/gift from family

We are tentatively pre-approved for $600,000 (we had applied for $750,000), however needed to tell the underwriter that we were going to receive a gift from our family of $19,000 to cover closing costs (only had to provide this verbally). Should we get the seller to cover our closing costs for us, then we no longer need the $19,000 in gift funds. Since we are not under contract and this has to be manually written they have to assume you will pay for everything. We are expecting to receive our pre-approval letter via email at some point tomorrow.

On a separate note, NFCU mailed us our mortgage scores and they were quite different than the Fico8 scores!

My husband: EQ 662 EX 672 TU 640

Mine: EQ 643 EX 684 TU 676

Now comes the hard part of home shopping. We live in the San Francisco Bay area (North Bay) and unfortuntely house prices up here are astronomical. Even at the $600,000 price point we are going to have a tough time finding a 3 bed 2 bath, but we are excited to be over this first hurdle!

Will continue to keep you all posted.

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Glad you head back from NFCU.  I am following so keep updating.

[Anonymous]

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@erinbean28 wrote:

This morning on my daily follow up with the mortgage department I finally received some news on the status of my pre-approval.

Things I learned today regarding Homebuyers Choice Jumbo Loans:

Underwriter is looking for 6 months of reserve funds in bank account/401K/assets

Underwriter is looking for closing costs to be in bank account/assets/gift from family

We are tentatively pre-approved for $600,000 (we had applied for $750,000), however needed to tell the underwriter that we were going to receive a gift from our family of $19,000 to cover closing costs (only had to provide this verbally). Should we get the seller to cover our closing costs for us, then we no longer need the $19,000 in gift funds. Since we are not under contract and this has to be manually written they have to assume you will pay for everything. We are expecting to receive our pre-approval letter via email at some point tomorrow.

On a separate note, NFCU mailed us our mortgage scores and they were quite different than the Fico8 scores!

My husband: EQ 662 EX 672 TU 640

Mine: EQ 643 EX 684 TU 676

Now comes the hard part of home shopping. We live in the San Francisco Bay area (North Bay) and unfortuntely house prices up here are astronomical. Even at the $600,000 price point we are going to have a tough time finding a 3 bed 2 bath, but we are excited to be over this first hurdle!

Will continue to keep you all posted.

 The reserve amount is a very useful data point for me.  Thank you!  We are in Orange County, so while not as bad as the Bay area, I feel your pain in looking for housing.  I kid you not--in my city there is a raging debate over the "affordable housing" that is being required in each new development.  Certainly we don't want those who can only afford a $550,000 mortgage riff-raff in the Land of Gracious Living.  (Seriously, $500k meets the "affordable" housing requirement).  But I digress..

We will be looking at a Jumbo Homebuyers Choice next fall, and knowing we will need at least 6 months of reserves this far out will help guide some spending choices.

[erinbean28]

We have been out shopping for homes this past week! We have seen several promising fixer uppers, but are holding out for some listings to popup in our current community as we would like to keep our daughter in the same school system.

One black cloud which has been looming over our head is an item which we noticed in our closing documents (these are provided along with the pre-approval letter) regarding a car reposession from back in 2009. NFCU wants us to pay the $7,989 balance being reported by the bank, which is money we do not have. I plan on calling the bank on Monday to speak to them about what it would cost to pay off the debt (try to settle for less) and am hoping that since the debt was charged off as a profit/loss wirte off that they will be more flexible. But definitely a warning to all of you out there should any of you have old debts even ones which arent in collections - settle them before applying as they need to be paid in full along with a note from the bank statting such.

I will post more as the process continues!

[Anonymous]

I'm a little surprised the underwriter isn't concerned about the high income,low monthly debts but very little money in savings and other assets.As I recall that was a concern one of the lenders had with another poster that recently applied for a jumbo loan and they had quit a bit more savings and assets but good luck to you,I wish you both the best on your journey.

[erinbean28]

NFCU stated that they determine your eligability for a mortgage with a heavy weight on your relationship with them. Since we have used NFCU as our primary CU over the past three years, have a credit card with them as well as a line of credit I believe their decision to grant us a mortgage took this into account.

We have low savings presently as we were paying off credit card debt and other obligations in an attempt to clean up our credit report.

Thank you for sending positive vibes our way, we will need them!

[erinbean28]

We have been out house shopping over the past week. Put in an offer on a home which was WAY over priced and had been sitting on the market for 60 days. The sellers did not counter as they want to hold out for a buyer willing to pay $70,000 above what the comps are in the neighborhood. We just submitted another offer on a different property tonight and are crossing our fingers it goes through. This property is also over priced and has been on the market for six months. We shall see what happens!
Things to note about the zero down loan. If you work with a realtor who is not familiar with zero down loans (either homebuyers choice or VA loans) it is important to talk with them about how to write up the earnest money deposit when making an offer. Our realtor was very confused as she was mostly familiar working with FHA buyers who had 3.5% money to put in as earnest so we wasted several days on worrying on how to come up with a temporary 3% to put in as an earnest money deposit. After a nice chat with our loan officer we worked everything out and are only throwing in $3k toward earnest money.
Keep us all in your thoughts, we can use the positive wishes on getting this offer accepted!

[erinbean28]

We got word last night after some back and forth negotiations that our offer was accepted on the house which was on the market for 6 months! We are now in escrow.
Our original pre-approval through NFCU was for $600k, after requesting an increase through our loan officer we have now been greenlighted for $645k (which is the offer which was accepted). We were able to get the sellers to agree to pay closing costs and have requested a 45 day close (per the request of the loan officer). On our last call with the loan officer it was stressed that we have to make sure we have the 6 months reserve funds ready to go as this will be one of the first items the UW will check for once they reveive our file.

On a side note, I was able to reach out to the ancient car reposession which UW requested be paid off before closing on our loan. I was able to negotiate them down from $7,989 to a $5,000 settlement so at least that is taken care of!

We are meeting with our realtor this afternoon to talk about time lines (home inspection, appraisal, etc), today is day 1 of our 45 day escrow.

[StartingOver10]

Congratulations! I am glad you are able to work it out

[erinbean28]

So it has been quite the process, but we are now in fnal stages! The appraisal came in exactly for what we paying for the property $645k ($630 take home for sellers and $15k toward closing costs) and the home inspection only turned up that our new house is in need of a new roof. We provided all of the needed documentation to our Loan Processor (at first you engage with the loan officer, but after your offier is accepted the file gets turned over to a loan processor who wraps everything up) and were told yesterday that our file is being passed along to the loan committee for final approval at which point we will be given the clear to close. Our total financed amount is $649,999 (as we are rolling the 1.75 funding fee into the loan) and our monthly morgage will be $4,100 including property taxes and home owners insurance. 

We are beyond thrilled, but this whole thing still doesnt feel real. I dont think I am going to allow myself to feel excitement until we are given the official clear to close. I will post again after Monday as that is the day we should hear if we are in the clear!