We Finally Applied!

[me12345]

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@redE2move wrote:

It will be a year this coming Tuesday for DH at his current job and yes he is in the same line of work.

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Great, you should not have any employment issues then....

Thanks,

[redE2move]

@jville

I will Not kill the loan officer (or processor)
I will Not tear his hair out or gauge out his eyeballs, no ripping off his ears either!
I will comply immediately no matter how mad he makes me!

Now...I do have one concern however.  We applied to find out how much we could afford before going shopping but I did use a few mortgage calculators to guesstimate affordability based on our current DTI.  Well, immediately our LO is putting in $200k for the loan.  Whoaaaaa we make pennies, have debt and no savings (just gift money).  Isn't this info needed before starting a loan at $200k?  Isn't there a LO cheat sheet or something that says based on this information you may want to start at this number?  Just doesn't seem realistic to me based on our debt.  Also, our LO almost instantly killed our hopes of using one of the first time home owner down payment programs saying we didn't qualify and re-routed us from conventional to FHA.  I get it that reworking numbers may make one loan work better than the other but I can't imagine that there isn't a program that we can qualify for.  I'm thinking of doing another app with another LO simutaneously to explore the differences between what they both say I qualify for.  My fear is that we'll run out of time to find something if we start from scratch if we utilize just one LO. 

[JVille]

Are you working with a Realtor? Talking to another lender is always an excellent idea. Friend, Family and your RE Agent can give you recommendations of a LO they love.
You need to sit down and work on your personal budget. You need to share with the Lender what you personally think you can afford to pay for a housing payment. In my nearly 30 yrs of lending I met Two different borrowers. The ones that wanted to borrower Twice ( or more) what I would ever qualify/approve them for and then the ones who would never consider paying a Mtg Pmt as high as they qualified for. The point is you need to know personally what your budget can afford and then share that with your LO and see if your Budget and the reality of what you qualify for.
Sometimes this whole process is a reality check. But it sounds like your lender did not fully explain why one program works and another doesn’t. If your funds are completely gift funds then I can understand why you were switched to FHA. Conventional loans have requirements as to how much money of your own must be in the transaction vs gift funds. FHA is far more lenient in matters of DTI ratios, minimal down payment and gift funds.
So you need to know how much you realistically can afford to pay and compare that to what your lender will qualify you for. Then adjust your home Search to meet those guidelines.
Does any of this make sense. I have not had my coffee yet this morning !
Ask your lender questions and yes if you are not on board with this lender, find a different lender that you may work better with. Good Luck!

[redE2move]

We haven't chosen a real estate agent.  We're pretty much trying to find out what we can spend before even looking for someone to help us spend it but our LO recommended some.  I would say we fall in to the category of NOT wanted to spend what we can't afford comfortably.  We don't have the champagne dreams with beer money syndrome.  Not interested in having a mortgage that we'd have to struggle to afford.  Our goal is to become responsible homeowners and reap the benefits of our hard work.  We have considered homes that need a little TLC.  It doesn't have to be new and shiny just something that won't put us into the poor house because the note is high or because it is a money pit.  

My question to you now is will the LO submit the loan to the underwriter with $200k or will it go to underwriting with what we can afford based on DTI?

[redE2move]

Update:

6/11 - LO requested latest paystub (emailed right away)

6/14 - LO called to congratulate on pre-approval (yayyy).  But when I got home to read the approval and it says it is a Mortgage Loan Committment.  Is this the same thing?  I'm asking because I also saw the term pre-qualified.  

[JVille]

Yes!!! Congratulations 🎈🎉🍾

[redE2move]

Thanks Jville.  

[Anonymous]

Congrats! I am hoping you will get the house. Like what the other said, whenever the loan officer asking for anything let them know everything and more. After my last attempt for pre-approval on Nov 17, I have keeping in touch with the loan officer. I asked him all sort of questions.  I made another attempt for pre-approval today and waiting for a good news. Use the EQ 5, TU 4, EX 2 scores from myfico.com. This is the most accurate scores since the scores I am getting from 6/10/18 is exactly the same with what the lenders pulled today. That way, you will have more confidence to get exactly what you want from the scores. 

Ask the Loan Officer if he/she has real-estate agent in the network. If yes, use that agent. Sometimes some lenders will provide you less interest rate as an incentive to use real-estate agents in their network.

[redE2move]

@ben Good Luck!  I still feel a bit on edge.  My letter says it is a mortgage loan committment but says I am pre-qualified so I'm still confused about it.  My LO says it is a mortgage committment assuming nothing changes and that it was reviewed by FHA underwriting.  Idk

[Anonymous]

Thanks. Eventhough you are pre-qualified but if you haven't sign the actual contract so nothing is in stone. You still have to go through the appraisal, underwriting and closing. As long as the house is under pending sale I think you have a greater chance to get the house (unless the seller backing off and giving it to somebody who paying the seller a big lump sum of cash for example) or something like below.

https://www.realtor.com/advice/buy/can-sellers-back-out-of-a-home-sale/

Good luck to you too. If you don't get it, keep searching for another one or couple of houses. I always try to look for some backup houses. It is sad that several houses that I like were sold off. Good price, good land, good neighborhood etc.. Oh well.