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Things Not
to Do Before Purchasing a Home
No
Major Purchase of Any Kind
Review the article titled,
"Don’t Buy a Car," and apply it to any
major purchase that would create debt of any kind. This includes furniture,
appliances, electronic equipment, jewelry, vacations, expensive weddings…
…and automobiles, of course.
Don’t
Move Money Around
When a lender reviews your
loan package for approval, one of the things they are concerned about
is the source of funds for your down payment and closing costs. Most likely,
you will be asked to provide statements for the last two or three months
on any of your liquid assets. This includes checking accounts, savings
accounts, money market funds, certificates of deposit, stock statements,
mutual funds, and even your company 401K and retirement accounts.
If you have been moving money
between accounts during that time, there may be large deposits and withdrawals
in some of them.
The mortgage underwriter
(the person who actually approves your loan) will probably require a complete
paper trail of all the withdrawals and deposits. You may be required to
produce cancelled checks, deposit receipts, and other seemingly inconsequential
data, which could get quite tedious.
Perhaps you become exasperated
at your lender, but they are only doing their job correctly. To ensure
quality control and eliminate potential fraud, it is a requirement on
most loans to completely document the source of all funds. Moving your
money around, even if you are consolidating your funds to make it "easier,"
could make it more difficult for the lender to properly document.
So leave your money where
it is until you talk to a loan officer.
Oh…don’t change banks, either.
Should
You Change Jobs?
For most people, changing
employers will not really affect your ability to qualify for a mortgage
loan, especially if you are going to be earning more money. For
some homebuyers, however, the effects of changing jobs can be disastrous
to your loan application.
copyright 2000 by Terry Light
and RealEstate ABC
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