I close on Sept. 15. Last Monday I sent a e-mail to my mortgage broker that said “let me know if you need any paperwork. I am trying to avoid a last minute scramble.” I did not hear from her until yesterday when she finally looked at my file.
I am not sure how a morgage approval works but if she does not have all my paperwork then I assume the underwriters have not even seen my file yet. I close in 2 1/2 weeks. The place has not had a pest inspection or whetever else it needs.
I am paranoid by nature and I have a feeling that settlment date is going to be moved to to a lack of motivation on my mortgage brokers part. Which simply cannot happen. I am infuriated at this point. For many reasons including it takes a few days to get a reply yo my e-mail.
In your exprerience is 2 1/2 weeks enough time to close on house? As far as setting up inspections, getting paperwork together, and etc.
Would I be this far is I did not qualify for the mortgage? I think it comes down to whether I make enough money or not. I makes 34,320 a year and the mortgage is 96k.
Hi stoopitnewb… I feel your pain; I’ve been there. The only way you’ll know is to talk to your mortgage broker and find out what’s going on. In the past I’ve closed on houses with traditional financing in very short amounts of time, it all depends on the person handling your loan and how quick the underwriters are. Perhaps a mortgage broker should step in here because I’m not one (and I didn’t stay at a Holiday Inn express last night). This situation just emphasizes the fact that you have to have the right team together. Since financing your deal is one of the most important pieces, it stands to reason that your mortgage broker, hard money lender, etc. is also a KEY member of your team. My mortgage broker is worth her weight in gold. I know up-front exactly when, where and how things are going to happen. So again, talk to your mortgage person to get the facts and then build a good relationship with that person or find someone you really trust and make sure they can deliver consistently. It sounds like you’re not high on that person’s priority list either, which is very bad. It’s your deal and if you lose it because of a mortgage broker who didn’t let you know what’s going on or what was expected of you, then its time to have a serious conversation with them or get a new person on your team. Good luck and hang in there!
I dealt with her boss at first. He was very good at making me assured everything was going smoothly. He answered my E-mails promptly. I liked dealing with him and will tell him I will only deal with him on my next purchase.
if your file is incomplete at this point then you’re getting tight on time. I’ve dealt with many loan/mortgage brokers and they always say" don’t worry, we’ll get it done." A lot of time it ends up being a lot of stress on my part to come to sign docs at some highly inconivent time.
If you are not getting a call back in 1 business day, call the boss. Fact is next week is a partial week and then your into your closing week. If you file is not in underwriting by the middle of next week than you might not close on time. Moroever, if you file is not well prepared, the underwriters will request more information and that can eat up several days easily.
Are you not sure whether you have been approved for the loan at this point. You have submitted all the standard paperwork etc. right
If the loan officer is close enough to where you live you need to go by the office. I cannot even conceive of a phone call to a loan broker’s office NOT being answered. Does this person work from home?
I would be suspect of a loan office that did not answer their phones.
I would leave a really stern message and tell them I’m going somewhere else to get my loan completed on time. If this doesn’t get them to call you back -
One of the worse problems today is, many LO work out of the home, they never goto the office. Loans are all handles by email, internet and mail along with the phone call. My broker is in Colarado, I am in FL, and his process server handles everything by email with me and always responds with 4-6hrs. I dealt with many brokers and by far his service is the best, return calls and email replies are quick. But back to you…your LO probably works out of her home and never goes to office, except to print the required paperwork. Alot of LO have processors that dont even work in the office but at home. It has really become a a telecommute job over the last 10yrs or so with so many LO doing it part time.
Now, are you doing a stated or full doc loan? That has alot to do with how long it can take to process. I know many stated loans can be handled in 3weeks time or less. Full Docs have so much more paper so they tend to take 4-6weeks since banks want to see so much paperwork and bank statements.
As for your income being good enough to quailfy, we would need to know your Debt to income ratio as that is what loans are based on if stated or full doc. We have no idea what your credit card bills, auto loans, etc are. Bills showing on your credit report and your score as well
Most Loans in California are completed within 10 days if there are no problems or conditions. If you can’t do that you are out of business.
Many of the real estate offices Coldwell, Remax et al have loan officers on staff. I would be real uneasy if I could not look at the person who is doing my business, go to the office. Email is great and so is the telephone but there is nothing like eye to eye contact when we are talking money. A telecommuter would not work.
LOL…however, you did give the right qualifier of "if there are no problems or conditions. Seriously, yrush hit the nail on the head about how fragmented the mortgage process has become. People scattered all over the country and most have no idea what or if there is any sense of urgency for particular file. In some cases it is difficult or impossible for them to speak directly with the person holding-up the process (particularly underwriting and document processing/preparation). This is based upon my experience of using a number of different brokers as well as big and small banks for loans.
If I had a quarter for everytime I’ve heard “docs will be ready tomorrow”, I would retire from my day job for da Man and REI and just cuddle up next to a mountain of quarters… ;D
Now I do not know about all the other states, but I know in Florida you do not need to have a license to be a loan officer… They call them Loan Orginators instead. Plus you can open an office just like that really. Just need money for your computers and equipment but will be subject to writing loans in the state only usually. Then you have corresponding lenders which is a $25,000 bond to the state, but many dont bother so they just open a regular office and hire as many people as possibly. The experienced guys just pay about $500 a month for desk space to print the docs and work out of the home, and the newbies have commission splits. My friend did this and he has 30brokers in 3months out of his office. 20 of them pay him $500 a month for rent and he provides no help to them. But do the math…thats $10K a month for him, his rent is only $2000 a month, so he can make some good money w/o even doing a loan himself.
I think the industry has gone to hell really, just like real estate agents…anyone with $250bucks to pay the state can get a license today…Its a joke…
The best way to learn about your mortgage broker is to ask for references. If your broker can’t give you the name of at least three people that he has closed recently then there is a problem. Also, when the broker gives you the names it would be a great idea to actually CALL the references and ask them questions like… did you close on time? did the broker call you back in a reasonable amount of time when you called them? would you use them again?
I always ask my customers if they would mind if I use them as a reference. If they say “no” I ask them why and if it is a reflection of my service. However it is rare that they say no.
The state of Florida requires mortgage brokers to be licensed. You have to take a RESPA class and pass an exam and a background check before you can be licensed. The correspondence lenders require a brokers license to use their products. The only states that don’t require a brokers license are Colorado and Alaska. However I do agree with you that there are a lot of people out there who don’t know what they are doing. The refi boom brought a lot of bodies into the industry because all you had to do was answer phones to make 10K a month, but as rates go up and the housing market cools off the brokers who don’t know what they are doing will go back to waiting tables and bartending and the good brokers will still be here.
In Florida you can be a loan orginator and no license required. They are always advertising for them. I think orginators just go out and find the clients by any means and learn some of the mortgage processing but not all. They get about a 30-50% split. If you go on craigslist.org they are always advertising for them plus around here they have the signs in the ground with the WE BUY GUYS advertising for loan orginators, no license required…make 5-8K a month from your own home.
So all they do is generate leads and hand them off to brokers for the 30% split? That is not a bad a bad gig for someone with no education or training.
I think they do more than that. They can orginate the loan as the name goes. They do everything the brokers really do. They get access to the A/E at the banks and all…But make alittle less profits… but Fl is easy for the license…24hr class over a 3day period and then an exam…
Back to the original post, I’m getting the impression that there’s no agent involved on either side here, correct? If there is, and I was that person, I would be making polite calls to the mortgage broker myself to see exactly how far along MY transaction was. If I wasn’t getting 24 hour turnaround, and it happened repeatedly, you’d be double-apping with my lender ASAP.
Another thing I would be real curious about is when this deal opened. If you close in two weeks or so, but just opened escrow in the last week, then in my area I wouldn’t expect termite or to be past underwriting. But anymore than 10 days in and I would be really curious where the hell the termite report was.
First thing in the morning, call your broker and demand the status of your loan. Where is it, what else is needed, etc.
Remember, you are bringing business to the broker. Therefore, the broker should be contacting you everyday either through email or a phone call for daily status. that way if there is any problem it can be taken care of right away. Your broker should always be on top of it, no matter if there is 1 or 100 loan in process. You should not be chasing the broker for update.
