VA loan in underwriting

[Anonymous]

We put an offer in on a new construction home April 10, gave our $10,000 earnest money and applied for a VA loan through the builder's lender. We have given them every possible piece of documentation and were told we are in underwriting. Will we be approved? I'm concerned it is taking so long but the house won't be finished until August so I assume we just don't take priority right now? Here are our financials:
Family of 4
$90,000/year combined income
$461 car payment
$393 student loans
$163 health credit card payment from LASIK
$17,000 assets (including earnest money) and saving about $1,000 per month
House payment will be approx. $1,875

Our middle credit scores are 676 and 685. We have no late payments in the last 12 months. We had late mortgage payments from August 2013 to March 2014 at which time we did a permanent loan modification (we actually made trial modification payments in January February and March 2014 but they still report late payments). This was because my husband was in law school and I was the only one working and I had to be put on bedrest during my pregnancy and made only 70% via STD.

We also had 1 late car payment in August 2013 for the same reason (bedrest). Other than this time of financial difficulty, we have no other late payments in our history.

Should we be approved?

[Anonymous]

im new to mortgage loans therefore im no expert, but good luck! 

[frugalQ]

I'm assuming that the lender issued a pre-qual and went over your credit file. If so, and there aren't any other hidden issues, you should feel confident!


Usually, you don't officially go into underwriting until it closer to the time to close.

Good luck and congrats!!!

[Anonymous]

They went over our credit file and had to get documentation about my husband's student loans but never said anything about being pre-qualified to me. They just had me send a bunch of documents (bank statements, tax returns, w-2s, etc) then they said my file was in underwriting.

[frugalQ]

That's good news. Great that they are not waiting until the end!!

If they sent it back to underwriting, then the LO has probably already reviewed your file.

Make sure to take pictures of the construction for your memory book!!!

[mynameainttracy]

We went through underwriting at the beginning on our new construction. It was for peace of mind because of the large down payment that the builder required.

You should still download your monthly bank statements, paychecks and rent checks along the way. You might not hear much from your LO for several months and then they will pick up the loan process again at about 45 days before your scheduled close date.

Between now and then...don't apply for new credit, be able to explain any large deposits, monitor your cedit and make sure you don't get surprised.

Congrats!

[Anonymous]

Thanks! I definitely want peace of mind. I feel like we can't get excited until we hear we are approved. Thanks for the advice!

[phoenix_one]

Actually what you want to hear is:

"CLEAR TO CLOSE"

Then you can relax.

[Anonymous]

Tracy said-

"We went through underwriting at the beginning on our new construction. It was for peace of mind because of the large down payment that the builder required.

You should still download your monthly bank statements, paychecks and rent checks along the way. You might not hear much from your LO for several months and then they will pick up the loan process again at about 45 days before your scheduled close date.

Between now and then...don't apply for new credit, be able to explain any large deposits, monitor your cedit and make sure you don't get surprised."

That was my experience.  I'm in the last 30 days of my new build.  Things went dark for several months but the construction moved on.  I went 3 months without contact, but I knew mine was far down the road, as they worked more pressing files with fast approaching closing dates.

Now my file is the one top of the heap and I get all the attention.  I've had 2 meetings with the LO last 3 weeks, and a few emails and phone calls.   In the phase you're in, no news is good news LOL.

[Anonymous]

That's how I feel... If they thought there wasn't a really good chance of me getting approved I think they would have denied me by now. Being the builder's lender, it's their job to deny those who don't have a good chance before they start building the house. I picked everything out for the house and upgraded the kitchen to the tune of $20,000 so I think the builder would be pissed if they deny me at this point! At least that's what I'm telling myself so I can sleep at night! Haha