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Speeding Your Mortgage Up: It’s A Good Idea

The Real Deal

Everything Real Estate in the San Fernando Valley
Monday August 19, 2019
Speeding Your Mortgage Up: It’s A Good Idea

Some people honestly believe that buying a home is similar to renting an apartment, and that’s alright; the fact of the matter is that just because your offer was accepted, that does not mean you can move in tomorrow. The vast majority of people need help financing major purchases like a home, particularly for homes in Encino, Sherman Oaks, and Studio City – this requires obtaining a mortgage. Historically, mortgages take a long time to process, but it appears to be speeding up over recent years: by way of example, it took an average of 74 days in 2017, an average of 51 days in 2018, and an average of 40 days in 2019! Who knows, maybe it will be like renting an apartment in 2022.

While many of us are fond of complaining about the ill effects of technology on society, I’m sure we all realize we are much better off as a result of this technology. This is particularly true when it comes to computerizing processes that once had to be completed by hand, and then (gasp) delivered by U.S. Postal Services.

Today, many lenders have created phone applications to assist in speeding up the mortgage process by allowing you to simply snap pictures of the relevant documents, and fill in the pertinent information, all while you are waiting in line for your latte (or whatever kids are having these days.)

Obviously, some people get their mortgages faster than others; the lender’s familiarity with technology is one factor, but things like: (1) having a strong credit score; (2) being prepared; and (3) getting pre-approved also speed things up significantly.

It shouldn’t shock you that lenders will approve your mortgage faster if they believe you are a good investment; and news flash, that’s what your credit score is designed to measure. To put it in perspective, if your credit score is 760+, you’re looking at a 38-day average, while it jumps to 45 if you’re under 720.

As we will reiterate shortly, whoever comes to the table most prepared leaves with the most. Having all your paperwork ready for the lender (so they can just get started processing your application rather than playing phone tag with you to get every single document) will go a long way; it doesn’t hurt to organize it as well. As a general matter, your lender is going to want information on your financial well-being, so be sure to have your W-2 forms, pay stubs from the last month, and bank statements for the last three months. I sincerely hope this does not need to be said, but your lender will also want to see you filled out the actual loan application, they will want to see that you have contact information for homeowner’s insurance, and they will certainly want to see the actual agreement for the sale of the house (yes, people have forgotten to provide this).

At the Chernov Team we understand that knowledge is power, and since time is money, knowledge of how to speed the mortgage process up is powerful knowledge indeed. We said it before and we’ll say it again: whoever comes to the table most prepared leaves with the most, and the Chernov Team always leaves the table with the most.

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