BofA Mortgage...Opinions Please?

Assuming no surprises in the next 5 days, we've had what I think is a great experience with BofA (our agent feels a little differently because of a delay ordering the appraisal, but final funding approval came a week and a half ago - nearly 3 weeks prior to closing.)

Preapproval subject to appraisal took 10 minutes of my time, they just wanted a list of asset amounts and type (no acount numbers, just institution, account type and amout == like credit union savings $xx,xxx, IRA $x,xxx) employer and salary, SSNs for both of us, and a credit card to charge the tri-merge report to. They pulled liabilities and payments directly from the credit report. Maximum loan amount was given as a call back about 30 minutes later. The next day a package of forms to sign and airborne back, along with copies of the credit report, application form they generated from what I told them, closing cost estimates, and payment estimates for 80-10-10 financing came via Airborne.

We went with what they advertise as their 80% less paperwork process. Compared to our first mortgage 11 years ago this one has been a joy.

Not really no-doc, but at least I wasn't the one gathering up the documentation, given they don't have account numbers I'm not sure how they would even try to verify some of the assets. Our employer has a phone number to use to automatically verify employment and salary, they probably did verify that, they said they would.

I don't know their minimum score requirement, my scores at the time of the approval were slightly above what you listed, lowest was above 750, my wife's scores were higher than mine.

 

They charged you for your credit reports? Is that standard? I went mortgage hunting, my report was pulled numerous times, I never got charged, exceopt at closing, it was included in closing costs.

 

Yeah, there was a $50 charge that they took at the beginning. They got another $300 when we had the property selected, before they ordered the appraisal - they said to cover costs if we didn't close.

We had a higher charge 11 years ago for credit check and asset verification with another bank, so we didn't even think twice about it.

 

Man that's tough, I had no idea. I wonder why we were never charged? Maybe b/c we went through strictly mortgage cos.? I know that the mortgage cos. here, have to eat the costs. I just went through it w/my mother in law, I sent her to 2 mortgage cos. they both knew they were competing w/ the other so they both sent appraisers out, pulled c.r.'s the whole 9 yards with only her verbal consent. The one that did not close had to eat all of the costs.

 

When I bought my home in 1996 (after a discharged chp 7 in 1992) they approved me without any troubles. I don't know whay my scores were but all they required was a letter of explanation about the chp 7 and that was it. Our loan was approved in a wk and we closed in 6 wks. No problems whatsoever with them and they were very professional and it went smoothly. The only troubles we had was FHA inspected the property and there were 3 things that needed to be fixed/replaced before we could close and we found this out 2 days prior to our closing. The seller quickly fixed the problems and we went on to close the same day we had scheduled. We have since refinanced (2000) and took out a HELOC to replace our roof and do other repairs and now our mortgage is thru Chase but I would recommend BofA highly to anyone!

 

lyttlemac

I am not sure if BofA offers a no-doc loan program. I do know a of couple of lenders that do and with scores in that range, your friend would currently be looking at around 6.75-7%.


fla-tan

 

See my previous posts on the topic - it was a dream (easy, painless).

We're just tying up some loose ends on the appraisal and should close this week (refi).

RE: the credit report charge - don't worry, you paid it. It was listed in your closing documents and rolled-into the closing costs. B of A (and WaMu) gets a credit card up-front to ensure you're ready ("really" ready)... once you're at the point of locking in the rate, you're time for "looking" is ended and you need to file a "real" application.

Pre-paying the credit report fee this way will show as a "credit" against the closing costs.

-mj

PS one more thing about B of A mortgage- they don't appear to be high on closing costs at all - title, credit report, appraisal are all lower than WaMu AND my current mortgage holder. Getting "negative" points credited at closing is a nice bonus, too!

 

One more thing - brokers will generate multiple inquiries - but they should count as "one" for FICO scoring purposes (I"d still like to "feel" that is the truth... but who really knows?)

B of A will generate 2 inquiries - one for the initial "preapproval" stage, and one for the final review (which you do on the phone with the rep). My score doesn't appear to have taken a hit for it.

-mj

 

lyttlemac

Actually, for a No-Doc loan, those are excellant rates. A full-doc loan for the same scores would be around 6%. The no-doc is what causes the rates to go up. BTW there are no TRUE no-doc loans in the conventional arena that I am aware of. There are NINA (No Income/No Asset) or no ratio or NIV (No Income Verification) but that is about it.

I can't speak for other mortgage brokers, but I don't shop conventional mortgage apps to multiple lenders and I don't know of any reputable broker
that does. The way I shop sub-prime apps is to pull a tri-merge myself and then send that and the app to multiple lenders for approvals. That way there is only one inquiry until a lender is selected and then that lender will pull a final report before giving me final approval. If a broker just faxes apps around then each lender will pull a report for themselves and that can and will cause multiple inquiries.

Hope this answers your questions.


fla-tan

 

lyttlemac

I might go with any of the 3 depending on more information. The type of info needed should not be discussed on an open forum like this. If you wish, email me offboard and I will contact you to discuss it further.


fla-tan