Preparing to meet your mortgage lender :: Finding the right mortgage lending company

Mortgage Lending Guide: Meeting Your Mortgage Lender

Preparing to Meet Your Mortgage Lender

Meeting your lender face-to-face for the first time can be merely a get-acquainted meeting, or one in which you get down to business. Since life has enough interruptions and errands to keep us all busy, most people prefer to get down to business.

With that in mind, arrive at the meeting well prepared. 

• Allow yourself plenty of time. This meeting should only take an hour or so, but allow extra so that you don't have to rush off to another appointment without finishing the task at hand.
• If you have small children, get a sitter or leave them with a trusted friend. You need to pay full attention to this meeting and not be distracted.
• If you've chosen a house, bring along complete information about that house.
• Bring along documentation to show your credit-worthiness. Documents to bring include:
  
  
  • One month's pay stubs or documentation of fixed income payments (Social Security, retirement, etc.)
  • Two year's tax returns
  • Three month's bank statements
  • Any legal documents that affect your income and/or credit-worthiness. For instance, bankruptcy papers, divorce settlements, child support obligations / receipts, judgments for/against you.

Be sure that you have read the documents you bring in and have their contents fresh in your mind. If the lender asks a question, you want to be able to go straight to the answer.

If your bank account shows a large deposit, document what it is. (You may have sold your boat or just gotten a tax refund.) If you've recently sold something, you may need to show proof. It sounds crazy, but mortgage companies and banks want to know where your money is coming from. One thing they don't want to see is a possibility that you've borrowed money to make your down payment.

If you have recently paid off an obligation that will show up on your credit report, bring that documentation as well. Not all lenders report to the credit bureaus monthly, so a recent payoff might not yet be reported.

With this information in hand, you'll be off to a fast start toward qualification for your loan. But do be prepared to get more when they ask for it.  Each situation is different and each mortgage company has their own procedure. And if they ask for something ridiculous, don't blame your lender. He or she is merely passing along the mortgage company's requirements.

Being cooperative carries a big plus. Your lender will appreciate it and work even harder to get you a good loan… on time.