Buying our first home

JDBtwinmama

I haven't been posting as much as I'd like, but my hubby and I are some of the first of our friend group to buy a home.   We have 14 month old twins and we felt like we need the space.   Anyway, my question is about the mortgage process.    We made an offer February 1, and it was accepted.   Every single day the bank asks us for more documents, often a document that we've already sent in.   Has anybody had this experience?   Is it normal?   We have a hefty down payment and incredible credit.   I just didn't realize how hard the process is!

SouthernMama15

@JDBtwinmama yes! Dh bought our house 4 years ago and got a loan that didn't require a down payment if you made under a certain amount. We kept the down payment money for renovations.  He was right under the cut off limits for income. He earned a per diem at work because he was required to travel.  It wasn't part of his income, but the people at the bank required an insane amount of paperwork, half of which he had to have his company create to convince the bank 

belmont1785

Yes. It's TONS OF paperwork and run around until you close. Our close date was moved 4 times due to the seller being unprepared with their documents etc. Ugh. It's a long and stressful process. Not always, but certainly was for us.

JDBtwinmama

Ok, thanks! My mom keeps telling me it's nuts, but she hasn't bought a house in 25 years, and honestly my father probably did everything then!

knottie0d8cc4d43bacc09f

We went through the same thing..what I found crazy was that they needed physical copies of everything. I printed out hundreds of pages that could have easily been scanned and emailed. Good luck with your move! It will be worth it

dmbfan46835

Totally normal. It also depends if you are using a bank, credit union or mortgage broker. DH is a realtor so I am very familiar with the process. We have bought several homes and refinanced them as well since I was 21 (35 now) and the most simple and clean transactions have always been with brokers. Banks have more strict underwriting and are much slower at the whole process. The process is annoying and stressful but also so amazing! Good for you for getting in now. Rates are going to continue to rise and PMI is also increasing so that downpayment will save you so much in the long run. Good work! 

chayamosko

Good to hear, we're looking into buying a starter home (we are currently renting an apartment) and it's nice to hear about experiences! We actually have three bedrooms now, but with baby number two on the way,I would like the space that a home provides, and there's nothing like owning your own home! 

lewliv

Yep. Tons of paperwork. Do not open any type of credit until settlement! This is very important! My husband is a realtor and sometimes people open a new credit/store card during the house buying process and the mortgage doesn't go through in the closing day. Your credit records should stay unchanged!

Jmccabe12210

Also don't be shocked if your closing date gets pushed back multiple times. They're always waiting on some paper that doesn't get there when they think it will. A very drawn out process but totally worth it. Congratulations! 

PinkPrincessPiper

Yep, totally normal. I felt like we went through an entire tree's worth of paper, and they asked for everything except a blood sample. Congratulations, mama! 

and_peggy

It seems like anyone you ask will give you a horror story but we had a contract accepted the end of June and closed the end of July. It really has a lot to do with your bank and often, the other party's bank.

DeansGirl14

I've bought two homes (one by myself, one with DH) and used a mortgage broker both times. I don't feel like we kept getting asked for more stuff. In fact, most recently, we used an online system. We uploaded a bunch of docs to a secure website, and some we had to wet-sign and fax in. No sweat. I closed on time both times, no delays; the closings were quick. 

Prior to this, DH refinanced his own home once and that seemed pretty seamless too; he used a major bank.

I have a suspicion maybe some of this is just a result of how complicated your financial life is. We've both been employed with the same organizations for years and don't do any extra work. We only have student loans. Our credit is great. We have your standard savings and retirement accounts that don't get touched. It's about as straightforward as you can get for two established adults; no surprise income from anywhere or anyone (i.e. alimony or something). By contrast, we're friends with a couple who have self-employed jobs and some contract teaching work and their refinancing process was a mess. 

Just... stay calm, it'll all get done eventually! 

bwing10

JDBtwinmama said:

I haven't been posting as much as I'd like, but my hubby and I are some of the first of our friend group to buy a home.   We have 14 month old twins and we felt like we need the space.   Anyway, my question is about the mortgage process.    We made an offer February 1, and it was accepted.   Every single day the bank asks us for more documents, often a document that we've already sent in.   Has anybody had this experience?   Is it normal?   We have a hefty down payment and incredible credit.   I just didn't realize how hard the process is!

We just went thru this process.  We put an offer in on a house in December and it was accepted.  We had 20% down and great credit.  Our loan officer asked for more paperwork all the way up until the closing.  They basically wanted letters from our employers guaranteeing that we would have income for the next 10 years, we thought that was the stupidest thing I ever heard! I could lose my job tomorrow or get an accident and become unable to work, but none the less we finally go everything they needed and closed 45 days after the offer was accepted. 

Mango517

It's was always a ton of paperwork for our previous house purchases. This time around though it's not quite as many constant requests and the broker seems to be more on top of it. We're set to close in a month so I guess we'll see when push comes to shove if we get the house in the end. (In our time in real estate we've had more than our fair share of weird issues pop up, like our house burning down the day we signed the papers ((it was arson)), so we don't count on anything until keys have transferred hands.)

I do think the ease of buying this time around might be related to our ages and situation. We're in our mid to late 30's and have been homeowners for a long time with an established history of home buying and mortgage paying. I feel like that has to help for bank approvals and processes.

Congratulations!! That's very exciting to be buying your first home!!

DeansGirl14

Mango517 said:

(In our time in real estate we've had more than our fair share of weird issues pop up, like our house burning down the day we signed the papers ((it was arson)), so we don't count on anything until keys have transferred hands.)

Oh my god. A) that's awful. My parents had a situation where they sold their rental property and the people did the final walk through like 3 days before close. Two days before close there was a pipe burst or something and it flooded. The closing still happened because no one noticed. Sucked for the new homeowners.
C) I swear I almost burned my new condo down. I went with just the Realtor (not DH, who was out of the country) to do the final walk through (checking all the appliances, plumbing, anything that had to be fixed) the hour before closing. Then we went to the closing. Then I went to my old place, picked up cleaning supplies, and went back to the condo that was now in DH's and my possession. And... apparently we'd left the oven on. The whole time. Now, I don't know much about ovens, and I suppose people cook turkey or whatever for hours, so maybe I'm blowing it out of proportion. But I freaked (thank God I went over that night and not the next day!) and never told DH about it. 

JDBtwinmama

Thank you for all the advice!   I know it will be worth it in the end, but it is crazy!   We don't use credit cards @LivLew so we don't have to worry about that!  
@Mango517 I can't believe that, what did you do?!

Mango517

I don't remember timing details since its been so long, but I think it was that we had just signed the offer contract and everything was on its way for the seller to sign so we could go into attorney review. That's when my H (then bf) got the call from our agent. Sure enough house was completely burnt up. 

We're pretty sure it was the plan all along with the seller's son to get his mom and her belonging out of the house and then burn it for insurance money. She was only getting about 1/3 of the original list and it had been on the market a long time. It was an fixer upper old house in a shitty town, so they ruled it an electrical fire and called it a day. 

It was pretty crazy. Worked out for the best in the end!