I was inspired to write this blog by a recent question on this site, "What is your role in the loan process".
I'm the loan officer, the middleman, plan and simple.
On one side of my business I have my clients that need money to buy, build or refinance their home. On the other side are the lenders that have the money. What stands in the way? Guidelines, pages and pages and pages of guidelines. Minimum credit scores, maximum loan to value, source of funds, debt to income, debts that are part of the borrower DTI, debts that don't have to be counted in the DTI, appraised values, home types that eligible for funding and those that are not, and it goes on and on and on. There are hundreds, if not thousands of pages of guidelines for type of loan.
To do my job I need to ask potential buyers lots of questions upfront. What do you do for a living? How long have you been doing it? What are your credit scores? How much are you putting down? Where is that money coming from? And on and on.
It is through this process that I can match you with a lender. I can also turn up any potential "red flags", issues that may cause your loan to be rejected by the lender. Often times these "red flags" can be resolved if I know about them early in the process.
Starting in 2009 the Federal Government required us to be licensed. My license number is #134090. You can look me, or any other licensed loan officer, up at http://www.nmlsconsumeraccess.org/ You can find a lot info about your loan officer at this site. Who do they work for? How long have they been in the business? Have they ever been disciplined by a state?
If you are doing a simple refinance then just about any loan officer should be able to help you. Purchase deals require more experiance and construction loans are the most complex. Before picking a lender consider the loan officer that represents them. Do you answer the phone when you call? Are they available on weekends and in the evening? How many of your loan types have they closed? Can they answer the tough questions or do they need to "circle back to you"?
For more info visit my website, www.bestfhaconstructionloan.com.
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