First Timer's guide!!!!!!!! Prepare your self to succeed!!!!

I help a lot of first time home buyers and everyone has a lot of questions.  I wanted to put together a short summary of the loan process.  I will be brief just to not over complicate things.

1. Qualification- you need to provide certain documentation to be qualified. 30 days Pay stubs; 2 months bank statements; 2 years tax returns w/ W-2's (2008 & 2007) other forms of income may be requested.
2. Approved- you must know that the approvals are only good for 90 days but that is including finding the house so really about 45-60 days to find the house.  Then you may need to be re-qualified.
3. Find house- work with your Realtor/ Representative to find you house.  Remember if you are buying with FHA Financing there may be some restrictions.  I have noticed that there have been many cases of people having trouble finding houses where the seller's don't want FHA financing.  This can be troublesome.  So make sure which type of financing your obtaining (FHA or Conventional). 
4. Negotiating the deal- there are some things that you should know about when negotiating for your home.  If you ask for seller contribution for the purchase of your house the seller will give you the negotiated amount to be applied to your closing costs.  FHA allows 6% and Conventional allows 3% or closing.  If the seller pays the Title Policy and survey this will help lower closing costs. 
5. Executed Contract- Once the offer is accepted you will be expected to pay the Earnest money to the title company to take the house off of the market.
6. Inspection- Once that is done you should do a inspection on the property which will help you know what is wrong with the property if anything.  This is very important this is where you will find out if the house needs major work.  Like Roof damage, electrical, AC, or plumbing.  These are the major things normally if your problem is cosmetic then it is at the discretion of both seller and buyer.
7. Appraisal- Order appraisal for bank to review. This is a professionals analysis of the property and its value.
8. Disclosures- Once all of this is done then we are going to start on the paperwork to prepare for underwriting.  Underwriting is where the bank will review your application, property (Appraisal), documents, then determine the underwriters decision.  Whether your approved conditionally or not approved.
9. Loan submission- Loan is ready to be reviewed by Lender.  Loan sent to bank for review.
10. Conditional Approval- Loan will have conditions to the approval.  Once these conditions are satisfied then you will be sent to closing.
11. Closing- Where the Lender will send out the closing instructions which are for the Title company to prepare before we can close your loan or schedule. 
12. Scheduling closing- Depending on the title company and the TIME OF MONTH!  We will schedule the closing based on the Title companies availability and the buyers convenience and availability.
13. Closing table- Go to Title Company sign all documents.
14. Funding- Certain documents are sent to Lender to review and assure that they have been signed.
15. Keys- Loan funded and money is dispersed and the keys are given to you.
16. Move in- Normally 3 days before closing you can start transferring the utilities so you can have your utilities when you move in.

That's about it.  No problem, right!!!!!!!!  I hope that this helps better understand the loan process.

Feel free to contact me with more specific questions.

Prepared by;

Frank Marta

Texas Home Loan Specialist