I recently had a buyer that was referred to me by a past client. The buyer was moving here from another area, but was not quite ready for the move until he sold his present home. In the meantime, just like most buyers, he was doing his homework first by using the internet to look at homes.
On my first phone call, I encouraged him to get pre-qualified by one of my recommended mortgage companies in the area. He said that he was not quite ready to get with a mortgage company at this point. I'm not one to pressure anyone, I respected his decision.
The next time I followed up with him was a couple of weeks later. Surprise, he has now commited to a mortgage company from the internet. After having several buyers find internet mortgage companies with surprises at the day before closing, I was concerned with his choice. The good news is that this was a well-respected mortgage company that I was familiar with, not an unknown company. This gave me peace of mind that they wouldn't be coming up with any last minute surprises. This mortgage company's office was based out of Denver, not one of the local offices.
The process with this mortgage company did have a few bumps from the beginning since they had no knowledge of the swim/tennis communities or the taxes in the area. I helped them out with this information. I try to be pro-active with my buyers to help them out with the process. The mortgage company in Denver gave the buyers the amount needed for closing. Three days before closing, I had one of those middle of the night, "Oh'No" thoughts; does the Denver mortgage company know that the state of Georgia requires any amount $5,000 and over be wired to the closing attorney? Sure enough, they had no idea of this state of Georgia requirement. I immediately called the out of the area buyers to make sure they knew a wire transfer was required in order to close.
When you're using an out of state mortgage company, make sure you take into consideration that these companies don't know all the local and state requirements. You don't want any last minute suprises in the process.
Comments(0)