Calling All Mortgage Approvees'

TSaul,
Couple of things regarding FHA:

1) They want to see 2 years of perfect payment history, you may have to wait a few more months before you apply
2) You have to show that all old accounts are taken care of (account settled/paid off letters are good enough if it is not reflected on you CR when you apply)
3) DO NOT go to a bank for a FHA loan. Find a mortgage broker (or better yet a Buyer's Agent) in your area that specialize in "spotty" credit loans

My suggestion for anyone going FHA is to "apply" with a mortgage broker a year or more before you really want to buy a house. You'll get turned down, but that broker will be able to tell you EVERYTHING you need to do to get qualified.

Good Luck...there is nothing like owning your own home!

As always...

 

My husband & I were approved for a FHA loan a few weeks ago. We close on 3/27.

The process was so simple for us, it's almost unbelievable. I agree with the Hurricane...go through a mortgage broker. Ours managed to get us a 7.25% rate, 3% down & we DID NOT have to pay off any collections or charge-offs.

Our credit has been pretty clean for the past 3 years...hubby was late x2 with Gateway payment last year. I even had a $3000 collection account that was due to come off this month but was re-aged by the collection company (without me knowing) and this did not effect the loan. I just had to explain it to them.

Find a good mortgage broker & they'll tell you everything you need to do.

Good luck!!!

 

I have heard that they only need to see 1 year of clean record, not 2. It may vary by lender, but I am not sure.

 

During my mortgage search, I also had trouble with "traditional" bank lenders not working with me. My first attempt was with Chase and it was a waste of time and emotions. The second mortgage broker that I found got me through the process. I had to have 24 months of perfect payments, a good explanation for everything else on my reports that was not clean and pay a tax lien prior to closing. The lender that took my loan was Countrywide.

KK

 

We bought our home Feb 2001. FHA loan 7% apr 10% down

Hubby had some collection accts, some paid some unpaid and deficiency balance on a car unpaid, student loans under rehab agreements, and a 4 positive accounts. His middle score was 632.

 

We got approved for our mortgage two weeks ago and we close next week. We used a buyer's agent for the house and a mortgage broker for the loan. The broker approved us but since we had to move fast on a house we found, he handed us off to a smaller, "less bloated" broker who got us approved with 3 other banks, we just had to pick which one. We didn't have to pay off anything at all. He mentioned that was because we were putting 20% down.

 

KK, How long did it take Countrywide to close your loan?

 

What minimum scores are we talking about here?

 

I just closed a mortgage loan on 02/25/02. I went through USAA who actually outsources the mortgage loan through PHH mortgage. They preaaproved me in 5 minutes and told me everything I needed to provide for full approval @ 6.875%.

From the time we signed a contract on our home till closing was 18 days. We didn't have anything negative on our credit reports, but I did notice that on the preapproval, they specified that there could be no current late accounts or unpaid collections.

Good Luck,
JP

 

Tommyy,

I closed in three weeks. It was a 3 week scramble but I opened escrow on the 7th of May and they wanted to close on the last business day of the month.

KK

 

JP-
what were your scores for USAA? I have them for insurance and that is who my parents do all of their finance business through, although their scores are 800-900.

 

KK,
I started the refinance process with them on 3/5. On 3/15 they asked for my pay stub and copy of driver License which I gave them on 3/18.The appraiser was also out on 3/18 and promised to have it to Countrywide the next day 3/19. Besided getting my "package" loan details on 3/14 I have never spoken to the local loan processor. Are they eventually going to call me or should I call them? The initial person who set all this up on 3/5 stated she was shooting for 4/1 as a close date. Again I have never spoken to the local rep but the process has been moving along. Is this unusual?

 

Tommyy,

I called. I was afraid something would go wrong so I asked several times what information and documents do they need and provided them as soon as I could. It probably was not necessary but I spoke with my loan advisor at least 5 times in the three weeks of escrow. I had things to do like pay off my tax lien and bring in the receipt, write a letter to explain my BK and fax it, so we were in touch and communicating. If your not having problems, there may be less need to talk.

KK

 

Kelly,
Did FHA tell you to put down 10% or did you just do that because you and your husband had saved the money?

I heard that FHA won't let you put down more than 3%....that's weird.

I'm trying to purchase a 193k home. The FHA limit here is 156k. If I had the other 37k as a down payment, could I go FHA?

Is it possible to get a 1st mortgage with FHA for the limit then get a 2nd with another agency? Is there anyone out there that can answer this or direct me to someone who can?

 

We told the mortgage company how much we had for the down payment. I don't think we would have been approved for the loan w/ a lower down payment due to the unpaid debts on the credit report.

 

I was thinking of refinancing with FHA now that my credit is cleaned up. A coworker told me that I can't because I didn't go FHA on my home that I bought 2.5 years ago. My interest is very high but I have a penalty of 2400.00 if I refi before November of this year so I will probably wait since I can't save that amount with a lower rate for the next seven months.

Is my coworker right? I can't ever go FHA now that I didn't use them on my first purchase?


Thanks.

 

My scores were all between 700-750; however USAA goes out of their way to get members approved. Give them a call and see what they can do for you.

JP