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Tips for a Smooth Mortgage Application

Tips for a Smooth Mortgage Application

Shopping for a new home can be fun.  Looking at new homes, seeing different style homes, see how others decorate and starting to imagine what the home would look like when you moved it.

Getting a home mortgage loan – not so fun. But you can make it a much easier and smoother process if you start by working with a good Minnesota, Wisconsin, or South Dakota mortgage professional. Quickly followed by being realistic, cooperative and responsive to the paperwork requirements of the loan process.

First step, be realistic. Are you ready to buy a home?  Is your credit OK?  Do you have stable employment?  Do you have some money for down payment?  Assuming YES, the first step is to complete a loan application.

How to Pick A Lender / Loan Officer

Always use a local lender.  There is nothing better online than you can down the street. More often than not, it is actually the other way around. For example, no big internet lender can offers your “local” down payment assistance programs.

Always work with an experienced and fully licensed Loan Officer (read my previous article on learning how to tell the difference).

Mortgage Application Documents

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The mortgage application process is cumbersome and paperwork intensive.  Everyone needs to supply basic documents, but depending on your individual situation, you may need more – sometimes a lot more.

Gather and have your basic document ready as listed below. Please do not argue with your Loan Officer. When they call asking for something, it is not them picking on you, it is required. Arguing will get you no place except denied if you don’t supply what is being asked for

Checklist:

  • Photo ID
  • Two most recent pay stubs for each person signing the loan.
  • Last two months bank statements (real statements, not printout or screen shots, all pages)
  • Your most recent 401(k) or other retirement account statement.
  • W2’s (all jobs, last two years)
  • Most recently filed Federal Tax Return (all schedules) State return NOT needed

Common Additional Items

  • Documentation to verify additional income, such as child support, alimony or a pension (recent award letters, and divorce decrees)
  • Last TWO years business and personal federal tax returns if self-employed or own rental property
  • Full copy of bankruptcy papers, including the discharge notice
  • Old Foreclosure? – Need the Sheriff Certificate of Sale (available from the county)
  • Old Short-sale?  Copy of HUD1 Settlement Statement from the actual sale

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