TheHomeMap

As a Mortgage Planner at a direct lender, I have gotten the call many times
to save the day. In many cases there was a situation where a Realtor had a
buyer come to them who was "already pre-approved." Their friend, cousin,
former coworker, etc. worked for a mortgage broker and they wanted to go
through them on the loan. After attempting to broker the loan and killing
valuable weeks from a 30 day escrow, the borrower calls their agent and lets
them know their lender couldn't get the job done.

In the past this was an opportunity for a professional lender to "save the
deal," review the file and qualify the borrower within the guidelines...
while closing quickly enough to save the escrow. This isn't the case
anymore. First of all, with the new 2010 Good Faith Estimate laws, there are
several points in the loan process that now require certain steps that have
been causing additional delays. More importantly, FHA has begun to say they
will NOT insure mortgages that were previously declined by another lender.
Every FHA loan that is submitted and appraised is registered in what is
called "FHA connection." They are assigned a unique case # and the property
address is matched with their social security number. If an underwriter
makes a note in the file that "credit was denied" then that borrower is now
essentially blocked from being able to get an FHA loan on that property,
EVEN IF they really did qualify and just had a unprofessional loan officer
prepare the file.

If you or a buyer you know is not feeling confident in their lenders ability
to do a good job, do everyone a favor and make sure they find a legitimate
lender who knows what they are doing and CANCEL before the other lender does
any permanent damage on their ability to get an FHA loan!

The solution is for buyers and agents to make sure that the right lender is
financing the purchase from day 1. As a buyer, make sure that you are
working with a reputable lender and ask for proof of success on previous
loans. As an agent, it is the same idea. Are you trusting your buyer's
ability to finance the biggest purchase of their life with their friends
cousins sisters boyfriend? Make sure that now more then ever you have a "go
to" relationship established with a good lender at a good company. Agents,
in this real estate environment you can't afford to take risks with your
buyers (and the buyers of your seller's homes!)

-Rafael Perez
Questions? I can be reached at Rafael@thehomemap.com