Getting Pre-Approved

 

Getting a mortgage for your first home is one of the most satisfying things you can experience as an adult. Being able to receive the acceptance and offer for a mortgage with a lender is a stressful situation at first and it is something which will truly make your day, week, month, or even your year.

Selling and buying property can be incredibly stressful and there are a lot of steps in the process which you will need to tackle. How would you know that now is the time to sell your home? How do you calculate the payment? What is your land tax for? These are all parts of the process which can confuse and stress you out.

However, nothing is more nail biting than putting an application in for a mortgage and waiting for the acceptance. This is what your whole journey will depend on and it is imperative that you get it right in order to move onto the next stage of the process.

So what happens when you do get the acceptance and you have that mortgage document in your hands? What’s next?

Go for a second viewing

After you have got the acceptance letter for your mortgage and everything is correct, it is time to head back to the house for a second viewing. There are some cases where a second viewing is like taking off your rose tinted glasses. If you have been in love with the idea of a home for so long, you likely missed things such as cracks and leaks in the walls the first time you saw the home up close. Now that you are able to put the money into the property, it is a good idea to head back and take another look. Make sure that this is the home you want to move into, warts and all.

Measure the rooms

When you are walking around the home for the second time, a good idea would be to bring a tape measure and begin measuring alcoves, windows, and walls to get an idea of what you can bring into the space from your current house. If you already have a home, this can indicate whether your sofa, chairs, and bedroom  suites will fit or not, and if not, you can go out and buy a new furniture in preparation.

Source furniture

Buying new furniture for your home is always going to be one of the more fun aspects of the buying process, because here, you are finally getting to put your personal mark on the home. When looking for furniture remember to check on sites like eBay for second hand deals, second hand stores, antique shops, and look at local furniture stores as well as looking online at the big retailers. You could surprise yourself with the money you can save for a beautiful set of items.

Rent a storage unit

Once you have bought some new furniture for your house, you will need somewhere to store it for the time being while you wait for the exchange of contracts. A storage unit in your local area is the ideal place to keep items safe and it will ensure that you can start packing up your belongings and storing them in here for easy transport on moving day.

Plan moving day

Speaking of moving day, it is important for you to keep open communication with all parties in the move and you might want to plan your moving day early. The best day to move is Wednesday and there are a few reasons for this. Firstly, it’s cheaper because most people will choose the weekend. Secondly, there will be less traffic, so it is easier to get around. And thirdly, your new neighbors will likely be out at work so you can have the moving van coming in and out without inconveniencing your them.

Pick up the keys

Picking up the keys is the most exciting part of buying a home because this is the literal moment when ownership transfers to you for good. When the keys are placed in your hand, you now have a house, and it is time to call the troops for moving day.

Clean up

Before you move everything into your new home, it is important to carry out a thorough cleaning. Most sellers will clean their house before they move out as a nice gesture to the new owners. However, some people won’t clean at all. Once you step into the empty carcass of your home, it is the ideal chance for you to clean up a bit before you start packing all of your stuff into the rooms. Take the time the day before you move in to clean all of the carpets and let them dry. Make sure to vacuum anywhere and everywhere. Bleach and wipe the bathroom and kitchen. Make sure that your new home is spic and span when move in and this will make it much easier to keep on top of during that crucial settling in stage.

Moving day

Once the big clean is done and dusted it is time to move into your new home once and for all. Depending on what you have in terms of belongings, you’ll either want to use one massive truck, or you could rent a van such as Hertz in your local area and bring the items to the new house yourself. It is a great idea for you to invite family to the home and get them to help you with the process because it will often take a lot of hands and a lot of work to get everything into the home and in place. Before you use any water or electricity in your new home, make sure to read the meter and use this later on when you sign up with an energy provider. If the value isn’t the same as when the previous owner left, you’ll be charged for it. 

 

 

Today was the day we have been working towards for the last couple of months–the lender called to tell us we will be closing on our house on Thursday! Even though we already knew the loan was approved, because they had still been calling or emailing us several times a day needing this or that additional piece of paper, we were still not convinced it would actually happen!

When the phone call came, I was busy writing down the name and address of the closing attorney, so we’d know where to go and when to be there. I hung up and told Fabgrandpa the news, and he started grinning from ear to ear. While he has owned mobile homes, and two travel trailers, he has never owned a house before. He said he was “stunned” that it is really going to happen!

After we close, we are going to put in an RV hook up first, so that we can live in the RV in the back yard while we take our time buying furniture. We have to go to work in Arizona again in April, so we have pretty much decided not to buy much before we go. It will be less to worry about while we are gone, and give us something to do next winter. (I’d like to just rest a bit. This house buying stuff is hard work!)

So, Thursday night we are going out to dinner and a movie with our daughter, Emily, to celebrate our new status of “homeowner”.

Today we got the phone call we have been waiting for! The lender called to tell us that we are pre-approved for a loan, in the amount we were asking for. We have both been so anxious, and not sleeping well because of it, while we waited this out. Again, we know we are an exception to most rules because we have worked seasonal jobs for the last eleven years. We had to get our employer to state that we have a job to come back to in the spring. I can really understand a lender being cautious with lending to someone who works seasonal jobs, but they can see that we have paid our bills on time for more than eleven years. We may only work half a year, be we ARE responsible people.

So, the next step is to start looking at houses. We have an appointment with the real estate agent in the morning to look at one in Carrollton. We have looked at this house online, and it looks really good. Because we are buying with a VA guaranteed loan, everything in the house has to pass VA approval. This particular house meets with most of our criteria: A flat, ranch type house with at least two bathrooms, a carport, and a yard big enough to park our RV in AND in an area with no restrictions for doing so. We don’t especially want to be in a subdivision, but even though this one is, the houses aren’t jammed right up against each other.

I’ll be taking pictures of the houses we look at, and if they don’t meet our expectations, I’ll tell you why. Y’all keep your fingers crossed that this looking process doesn’t take forever.

I really don’t have anything new to report as far as the progress towards getting pre-approved for a mortgage loan.  When we went for the first meeting with the lender on November 1, we asked how long it would take to get our pre-qualification letter. The answer was “In most cases, you will have your pre-approval in just a couple of days.” Well, it seems we are not your everyday mortgage applicants.

For one thing, we work seasonal jobs. And those seasonal jobs are with the U.S. Government. And you know how long it takes to get paperwork flying with the feds.  The mortgage representative we are using send the forms to both of our supervisors last week. But then there was a federal holiday. Yesterday, I called Fabgrandpa’s supervisor and left a message telling him we need for him to fill out that form ASAP. He is being transferred to a National Park in Michigan, and his last day for work at the North Rim is Friday. He called me back later in the day, and filled out the paperwork while I was on the phone with him.

The second thing is, since we live fulltime in an RV, we change our address frequently. We have been living and traveling in an RV for going on 12 years. We are hoping that any potential lender can see that we have a good credit score, pay our bills on time, and would be a good credit risk in spite of our lifestyle.

One other thing that has slowed this process down is that the day we went to our first meeting, a work crew was digging on the main road through town, and cut a  major communications cable, and the internet service to the office was down for three days. While that was not the fault of the mortgage company, it still added some days to the process.

Now, as far as I can tell, the mortgage company has everything they need to make a decision. It has been two weeks since our first visit, so I hope we hear something soon.  We can’t even go to look at houses until we get that letter from the lender.