Mortgages...

[thetreble 19]

In your experience, how long did your mortgage take to get processed?

[trailmix 77]

In your experience, how long did your mortgage take to get processed?

I haven't gotten a mortgage in the U.S. yet, so I am interested to hear responses on this one.

[tom&tata 2]

Ours was around 1 week after all documents submitted (appraisal & its supporting docs was the last one submitted).

[thetreble 19]

So from the time you put in your documents, until the time they said it was ready, it only took 1 week? Wow. I'm a little fearful because in our contract we have until Nov. 15th to secure the mortage. I heard it can take up to 2 months. :/

[*julez* 124]

We made an offer on our house in June and got the committment letter from the bank in a week or so. In selling our other house though, it took the buyers over a month to get the committment letter. (We agreed to terms of 26 Aug, the committment letter came in early Oct and the sale of our house closed 9 Oct) My lawyer said he was seeing this same issue with all buyers and believes the current economic crisis and related bailout stuff to be the cause - that banks are really scrutinizing people, even if they've been pre-approved. Not sure if he's right or not, but it sounds plausible.

[thetreble 19]

Thanks for the heads up. I really hope this is not the case for us. The loan officer told me it would be no problem, but I have friends in the financial industry who say in this market it could be a wait.

[Gypsyangel 11]

I think it they need a deadline (ie. your settlement date) to get it done. At least that was our experience. Mind you we were getting ours right before this whole financial crisis and I think they were already feeling it at the mortgage company. Apparently, they had closed the local offices right when we were trying to have ours finalized.

In the end, it took about 3.5 weeks and it seemed like they didn't do any work on it until the final 5 days, when they had a bunch of crazy questions and issues. Right up until the morning of settlement they were asking for more information. Then they sent the wrong info to the deed company the morning of settlement. And there was more back and forth. It was very stressful!

I hope yours goes more smoothly and swiftly!

[thetreble 19]

Gypsy, what kind of additional information were they requesting?

[tom&tata 2]

So from the time you put in your documents, until the time they said it was ready, it only took 1 week? Wow. I'm a little fearful because in our contract we have until Nov. 15th to secure the mortage. I heard it can take up to 2 months. :/

I guess I should make it clear. The 1 week was for final approval (which incl. appraisal, etc). We submitted documents in advance (income & asset verification) and that one took several days. Yes, ours was quick but we did it before this "madness".

[Ontarkie 14,503]

I bought our house this time last year and it took 21 days (including the offer and counter offer and agreeing with the seller) from finding the house and moving in. Now that shenanigans with the housing market has been called, I don't know what you should reasonably expect.

The loan officer should be able to give you a reasonable estimate on when you're loan would be approved.

[Ontarkie 14,503]

I bought our house this time last year and it took 21 days (including the offer and counter offer and agreeing with the seller) from finding the house and moving in. Now that shenanigans with the housing market has been called, I don't know what you should reasonably expect.

The loan officer should be able to give you a reasonable estimate on when you're loan would be approved.

err sorry,

The loan officer should be able to give you a reasonable estimate on when you go from having the loan approved (the approval that comes after the bank appraises the house) to when you can sit down with the title company and sign for the house.

[thetreble 19]

Update:

So we got our mortgage confirmation on time (deadline was Nov. 15th) although they are still trying to verify stuff from my Canadian employer. They wanted a crazy amount of information and I think I sent them over 60 pages of different stuff. It was pretty much madness for me for about two weeks.

Nevertheless, the mortgage company is asking me to lock in now at 6.00% with .375 points. Can any of you give me some advice on if that is a good rate and if you think paying the .375 points is worth it?

[Ban Hammer 13,570]

Update:

So we got our mortgage confirmation on time (deadline was Nov. 15th) although they are still trying to verify stuff from my Canadian employer. They wanted a crazy amount of information and I think I sent them over 60 pages of different stuff. It was pretty much madness for me for about two weeks.

Nevertheless, the mortgage company is asking me to lock in now at 6.00% with .375 points. Can any of you give me some advice on if that is a good rate and if you think paying the .375 points is worth it?

paying points is worth it if you are going to be in the house for at least 5 years. plus the point payment is deductible for that year's taxes. i paid points and got down to 5.5% . also, how much is that .375 going to cost you?

[k34 0]

Oh wow.. I had no idea it could take a long time in the US. When I bought my house here the mortgage only took a day or two to have sorted out. We are in the process of buying a place in Chicago and the seller is getting a little antsy about not having mortgage details yet even though the closing isn't until Jan. 16th... I guess I now know why.

[thetreble 19]

Yeah it is pretty bad. In fact, my closing is Dec. 10th and all of our information still haven't been approved by the underwriters yet. My parents gave me some money and they asked me last week to get my parents to go to TD bank and get them to verify the money was pulled from their account and they wanted a copy of their account statement. I was almost embarrassed to ask my parents to show me their bank stuff. It is ludicrous that the bank needs more than a verification from my parents that the money was given to me as a gift and not a loan. They actually had to fill out a 3 paged document and get the bank to sign it.

Again, this stuff never ends.