Karen Bellas

Collect Your Documents Before Your Purchase a Home

Getting your paperwork together will help you as you go through the home purchase process. 

The decision to buy a home is both thrilling and demanding. You may have just started your search, or you may have already located the home of your dreams. Purchasing real estate requires a bit of research, organization and paperwork, but you will receive your reward for well-done preparation when the loan process and closing progress goes well and without incident.

The first stage in this process is obtaining a copy of your credit report. As so many buyers find mistakes on this document, you need to check yours and make sure that everything on the report is true. If you do find a mistake, attempt contact with the creditor first to fix any problems. Just because you have a low credit score does not mean you cannot buy a house, you may just have to pay a higher interest rate.

Get Your Paperwork Organized to Speed Up the Approval Process

After you have gone through the procedure of picking a lender and the type of mortgage you want to get, the lender will have to do a verification of employment. You can contact your human resources department and let them know that they can anticipate the arrival of this form. That can make the return time for that document much faster.

To finish the mortgage process, you are going to have to produce last month's pay check stubs, your W2 forms from the last two years and the past two years worth of tax statements and tax returns. Since these documents can take some digging to find if you have not been organized, it is better to start looking for these documents as soon as possible. This will help your application go much quicker. Remember to keep all originals and only give your lender copies of these important documents.

Get Personal Information Together

Regrettably the paperwork isn't quite over yet. You will also need to find three months worth of checking or savings account statements. If you have assets for anything like mutual funds, stocks, bonds or retirement accounts, you will have to provide copies of this information as well. The lender is also going to want a photocopy of your driver's license or passport.

Examine your personal accounts and make a list of all your present debts and how much you owe. Include in the record any car loans, credit cards, other real estate loans, and student loans, and take notice of how much you pay each month for them. Some lenders require copies of these statements. In addition, analyze personal financial records and make note of how much accessible cash you will have on hand after you have paid your down payment at your home's closing. Bring copies of your Social Security card as well as that of the individual with whom you are buying the house if both of your names will appear on the loan. Once your paperwork is in order, the mortgage process should conclude seamlessly.

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