Important Things To Avoid Prior to Buying A Home

Ok, this sort of post is dry I know but it is still important - sort of like your Great Aunt Rita's pot roast.

Don't buy expensive items

Many new homeowners rush out to buy things for their new home as soon as their offer is accepted by the seller.  Knowing you will have the newest, latest, largest flat screen TV in the new place is important (!) but your mortgage lender does not agree.  

Don't change anything with your job.

Don't change jobs.   Even if your boss is a jerk and this is 14th time they ask you to go take their poodle for a pedicure.   Or, if you are offered a great new, better paying job, this is also bad.  Honest.

The mortgage lender needs to see a boring job history before you apply for a loan but even more importantly a boring job history from when you applied until the closing.   Job changes can equal a dead closing.

Don't switch banks or move $ around.

Both seem like easy no big deal things that would be fine.   Between when you applied for the loan and when the home closes, don't move money around.   Lenders don't like to see a new bank name appear on your credit report that they will pull 5 days before the closing.  They also don't like big chuncks of money appearing in your bank during that period nor leaving your bank during that period.  If money has to move around in either direction, document it all and keep copies of the statements from the place the money left and the sister statement showing that money arriving in the other place.

Become great friends with your lender after your offer is accepted.

You were pre-approved for a loan.  Then you went house hunting, found THE best place and your offer was accepted.  Now you sit back and chill for 45 days right? 
 
Yuh-no.

Now you are going to call that lender (or another) and tell them you just received an accepted offer on this great new place.  They will then ask you to email them 549 documents.   Then right when you send those in, you will get another call saying they need another 23 more.   And the week after they will need 78 more.   It seems crazy but this is how the business works since 2008.   It is normal and this happens to every borrower.  Don't take it personally and get those forms in promptly so you don't lose your deal.