My first real estate deal was a real roller coaster ride. It involved first time buyers who's credit was too low to originally qualify for a mortgage. The loan officer issued them a prequal form anyway because he thought that he could get them to where they could qualify before the close of escrow. I had assumed that if they had a prequal form then they were good to go so I started showing them homes that they liked. It was only later that I found out that they were going to have problems actually qualifying for the loan that they were supposed to be prequalified for. By the time I found out it was too late to go back. We had already went through the inspection period. Shortly after I found out that they would have trouble qualifing I also found out that the wife would have to be taken off of the loan because of her credit. At this point I was really starting to think the worse. Luckily this was not a fly by night type loan officer. This was, believe it or not, my loan officer who I have known for several years. Once I found out what he had done I went to his office and sat down with him. I told him that I wanted to know right then and there if he was going to be able to perform and to get the deal closed. I told him that if he could not perform then it was time that we bring in someone who can perform. He told me that he was very confident that he could still get the credit where it needed to be in order to close the deal so I was put into a position where I had to totally and completely trust that he could and would perform. It came down to the last week of the deal and the credit was still not where it needed to be. We were very close but not quite there. At this point I was very worried because my clients were first time buyers and did not have the cash to just through away without getting anything in return. They made enough to afford payments but not to just pay out for inspections and appraisals without being able to close. About 2 business days before we were supposed to close the loan officer finally called me and informed me that the credit was finally where it needed to be. Of course we still needed to have it go through underwriting and have the documents drawn up but we finally knew that the deal was going to happen. I then called the other agent and explained what was going on and that we would need a few extra days to close. We closed 3 days after the original date for close of escrow but we did close. This was one case where both the loan officer and myself earned every penny of our service fees. In the end everyone was happy and I even helped the client to move a few of their items into the new house.
There is no doubt that the loan officer you choose makes a huge deferance as to whether your deal will close. My loan officer worked a miracle in this case and he definately got my attention. I plan on having him as a business partner for many years to come. As far as I am concerned, I don't care how low the credit is when my loan officer issues the prequal form so long as he can back it up in the end. In this case he definately did.
My loan officer is Ron Sublett, Homeowners Financial (602) 228-4911
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