8 Great Ways to Stop Your Mortgage Loan Approval Cold

The Florida mortgage landscape has undergone some serious upheaval over the past couple of years, but recent reports show that activity in the housing market may finally be picking up. The time is right, as rates are still near all time lows.

Of course, if there's one thing that's constant... yada yada yada... you know the rest. In short, rates won't stay low forever, and when they go up - they'll go down again.

For all of this change, one thing hasn't changed that much - and that's some of the basic process underwriters go through to approve a home loan.

The More Things Change - The More They Stay the Same

Programs like Making Home Affordable and FHA Streamline Refinance help to alleviate burdensome housing costs. However, these programs all come with their own specific guidelines. As such, it's important that homebuyers do their part to make sure that their loans clost with limited hassle.

Getting Approved For Your Loan is Only Half the Battle

Though most people focus on that initial hurdle of getting approved for a home loan - the challenge is often not in obtaining approval - but keeping it! This is true for reasons that most folks don't think about

See, the housing market - and subsequent mortgage market - collapse sent many lenders out of business. The ones still alive and lending money are massively understaffed. You can guess where this leaves efficiency levels. (I'm picturing something white... made of porcelain... goes flush!)

Put bluntly, lenders simply can't get through loans in the time they once could. What used to take 15 to 30 days is now taking up to two months. Two months! And that's just for your garden variety seller to buyer loan. Throw in REOs and short sales and the time frame just goes up from there.

Too Much Time on My Hands

The guys from Styx said it all... some crazy things can happen to a loan approval when time stretches out on you. When your loan is initially approved - you're giving the underwriter a snapshot view of your financial situation, debt load, etc.

I tell clients to refrain from buying a whole house worth of furniture, or making any other major financial moves during their loan approval window. And, while it's not a stretch to stick to your financial budget and game plan for 15 to 30 days while your loan makes its way through to closing - moving up to 60 days can get painful.

Sure, some things pop up in our lives that require financial action. If your car dies, you need to fix it or you risk not being able to get to work. What we need to be mindful of though are some things that underwriters see as zero tolerance deal breakers.

Here are 8 things that you absolutely do not want to do while you're waiting for your mortgage to close.

1. Don't open new credit cards -- even if they offer you 15% off
2. Don't move from a salaried job to one based largely on commission
3. Don't buy a new car or trade-up to a bigger lease
4. Don't quit your job or make any other major employment changes
5. Don't accept a cash gift without filing the proper "gift" paperwork
6. Don't make random, undocumented deposits into your bank account
7. Don't transfer large sums of money between bank accounts
8. Don't forget to pay your bills -- even ones that you believe are incorrect

While these rules may seem like common sense to you - I've seen too many cases where a misstep in just one of these areas resulted in a loan not being closed.

The best overall plan of action once you've been approved for a mortgage is to sit tight and make as few personal financial changes as possible.

I hope you found this post useful! As always, if you or anyone you know is in need of a Florida mortgage broker, then I’m your guy. Call me at 863-604-3019 or apply online. We’ll keep you posted and let you know when it’s time to pull the trigger!