A Quick Consumer Guide to the Mortgage Process
Your Steps to acquiring a mortgage:
1.) Begin talking with a mortgage lender
2.) Complete the application
3.) Supply supporting documentation
4.) Acquire a Pre-Approval Letter
5.) Going under contract and submitting intent to proceed with the loan
6.) Appraisal & Underwriting (submitting more documentation)
7.) Issuing the Clear to Close
8.) Transferring Funds & Closing!!!
What is a mortgage broker and how are they different than a bank?
A mortgage broker is like your own personal shopper for mortgage/home loan products. We do the shopping for you to save you time and money, ensuring that you are getting the best deal! Individual banks offer their portfolio of bank-specific products, but a mortgage broker has access to a wide array of products and programs from various lending institutions. A good mortgage broker will help each consumer narrow in on the best products and programs to match their financial situation and meet their home-purchasing needs without any bias towards a bank-specific product. Just as it is important to work with a great real estate broker from the early stages of the home buying process, it is also important to start conversations with a good lender as well.
Not ready to buy? No problem! Go ahead and give me a call! –
Many consumers wait until they are ready to write an offer to finally finish their application. This is fine, but starting a conversation with a lender sooner can potentially have some big advantages.
We can issue a pre-qualification, pre-approval, and even start the underwriting process off of a soft credit pull which will not affect your credit score. Once we pull the hard credit, it will show up on your credit reports but should only minimally and temporarily affect your credit. Additionally you are able to have credit pulled by multiple lenders and receive multiple loan estimates within 45 days of the hard credit pull without it additionally damaging your credit. A single credit report is valid for 120 days.
The application process is entirely online and usually takes 20-45 minutes to complete. You can easily and safely upload supporting documents (W-2’s, bank statements, etc) directly onto the application. There is no cost to submit the application. So receiving a pre-approval does not cost a thing! Once you are ready to proceed with the loan (typically once you are under contract), you will pay a $600 deposit that will cover certain items from your closing costs (appraisals, credit reports, etc). This deposit can go toward your next loan should the contract purchase for the property end up not going through.
A pre-approval is technically valid for 90 days. Information such as income, liabilities, credit, and assets will always need to be verified during the underwriting process. So it is important that if financial circumstances change within the 90 day period, that you update your application to reflect those changes. Pre-approvals also take into account property specific expenses outside of purchase price (such as HOA fees, taxes, insurance, and buyer/seller credits) so it is best practice to get an updated pre-approval for each specific property you are considering or making an offer on. Again, there is no charge for updating pre-approvals and no dings to your credit as we typically are working off a soft pull credit report during the pre-approval stage.
Click the button below to begin the application process
With combined experience in the industry spanning over two decades, these agents have joined forces to handle all of your real estate needs, specializing in neighborhoods from Chicago’s South Loop all the way into the North Shore suburbs.