Where to start seeking pre-approval for a mortgage?
First-time home-buyers & totally clueless about how to start seeking pre-approval/qualification for a mortgage. We’ll probably need at least $350,000 and maybe up to $600,000 from mortgage and we want a 15-yr payment plan. FYI, we plan to pay ~$300,000 cash down for a 2Br+ condo priced btw $650-950,000 in Park Slope/Carroll Gardens/Boerum Hill/Cobble Hill…
First-time home-buyers & totally clueless about how to start seeking pre-approval/qualification for a mortgage. We’ll probably need at least $350,000 and maybe up to $600,000 from mortgage and we want a 15-yr payment plan. FYI, we plan to pay ~$300,000 cash down for a 2Br+ condo priced btw $650-950,000 in Park Slope/Carroll Gardens/Boerum Hill/Cobble Hill area (haven’t decided which neighborhood yet). Do we start with big banks like HSBC, Chase, BOB? or go to Mortgage Brokers? Who are really mortgage brokers? How are they different from Banks? Sorry, my questions may sound silly. But any tips/recommendations on reputable/honest/reliable brooklyn-specialized mortgage brokers will be appreciated. One more, when we ask for pre-approval for a mortgage, would our credit scores be damaged by their credit-pulling’?
I am a broker, and i promise one of the best in the business. Give me a call and i will walk you through the process.
Thanks
Vanessa Thatcher
Atlantic Home Capital
631-687-3510 x106
vthatcher@athccorp.com
i would second, or third, the suggestion for universal mortgage. we used mark maimom (sp?) there and found them to be great: very professional, and very understanding of pain-in-the-butt first-timers like us.
I had a horrible broker experience and wouldn’t use one again, but we’ve got good credit and had a decent downpayment so our mortgage was pretty straight forward.
Adam Dahill is all over these forums and I’ve never once heard him badmouthed, so he’s worth calling.
You can also often walk right into your local branch and get pre-approved. The “pre-approval” letter is pretty straightforward — they don’t need to do a credit check if you know your credit score. What they’re really saying is “assuming everything you tell us is true and assuming our appraiser thinks the place is worth at least what we’re loaning you, we’d lend you money.”
The actual mortgage application, which you’ll start once you have a signed contract, is where you need to actually produce documentation of your income and assets.
I went with a mortgage broker; I generally found the rates to be better with a broker than the banks. I would say that the only reason to go with a bank is if you want to make sure your mortgage ends up somewhere specific (i.e. my friends took out their mortgage from their bank because then they qualified for the higher end checking/savings accounts). My mortgage, on the other hand, was sold about 6 times before it ended up at BoA. Since I didn’t really care who my servicer was, I went with a broker. The broker I went with had higher closing costs and fees than the banks did, but I negotiated with the seller to pay the closing costs, so I didn’t really care what the fees were, since I was more interested in the rate.
I’m not sure what they are doing these days, but I got a pre-approval letter without a hard credit pull. My broker used my self-declared income and assets for the pre-approval letter, and only did the actual credit check once we had an accepted offer on a property and needed to lock in the rate. Lending regulations are a total moving target these days, so I have no idea what people will allow you to do.
I am also a clueless first time home buyer and have been working with Universal Mortgage. I like them a lot! They got me pre-approved quickly and my husband and I are freelancers and have some credit issues (not great credit on my husbands side). But I have also learned Citi bank is offering the lowest rates at them moment so if your credit is really stellar it might be worth just going to them directly.
I used Adam Dahill at WCS Lending for my coop mortgage (we just closed). He was quite helpful and very flexible, unlike some other brokers that are frequently mentioned here. I needed someone who’d be willing to communicate via email, since I work in an open office and can’t discuss sensitive financial matters on the phone. The broker I was working with before Adam insisted on phone conversations and basically said “if lawyers and doctors can call me so can you.” Well, lawyers and doctors have private offices, I don’t. Maybe my deal was too small for him to bother with – I’m not rich.
Adam had no problems with doing business by email, which I found very helpful, both for privacy and accuracy.
The main benefit of using a broker is that they make the whole process smoother and take care of details that might escape the attentions of a bank. The rate I got was not better than the prevailing market rate, but the WCS people were a big help in making sure we had all of our details in order throughout the application and approval process (which is much worse now than it was a few years ago) and on to the closing.
Adam’s email:
ADahill@WCSLending.com
1) find out what your score is. If you are well above 720, you will have no problems getting a conventional loan. if you are around 720, first check if the 720 is still the required minimum score for best rates, it might have changed in the past few months.
2) In my experience, the most important thing is find a banker or broker you feel comfortable with. Some will tell you that they have to pull your credit to give you a quote but until you are 100% happy with someone and found the property you want to buy, do not let anyone pull your credit report.
You tell them what your score is, they give you a quote based on that. If in the end your score is what you said it was, there won’t be problems.
3) Unless you end up needing a non conventional loan, the size of the bank is not very important because they all sell you loans that fit the same governmental “programs” anyway.
For my last mortgage i used Sara Edelman +1 718-207-7751 she is with Approved Funding Corp. which is lender. As i was told since the beginning, after closing my loan was sold in a matter of weeks.
Sara is very knowledgeable, incredibly patient and very responsive.
Good luck
call Norman Calvo at Universal Mortgage.