April 10, 2024 • 30 mins
Welcome to our latest podcast where we continue our in-depth discussion on homeownership. In this episode, our experts, Matt Socci, Eric Watson, and Mark Jackson, provide a comprehensive insight into the crucial home buying pre-approval process. Understand why this step is vital in your homeownership journey, particularly in today's fluctuating real estate market.
We demystify the difference between a pre-approval and pre-qualification, outlining the importance of rigorous validation associated with pre-approval process. We dedicate ourselves to building financial trust and assuring realtors and sellers of your credibility as a home buyer with a detailed pre-approval process.
We explore the necessary documents you need for pre-approval, including W-2s, tax returns, and bank statements, offering guidance on how to gather and prepare these financial records effortlessly. Learn why complete transparency on your income, assets, or liabilities is essential for a smooth pre-approval process, painting a clear depiction of your financial stature.
Lastly, we navigate you through the application process, elucidating how at Premier Mortgage Consultants, we strive to comprehend our clients not just as applicants but as individuals. Discover our holistic approach towards mortgage pre-approvals, our exclusive Verified Approval Letters feature, and our adeptness in handling payment shock amidst high-interest rates. Our client-centric methodology and flexible service timings distinguish us in the mortgage industry as we not only promise exceptional mortgages but also streamlined processes.
Join us, to learn and prepare yourself for the home buying journey, starting with the crucial step of pre-approval, ensuring you're on the right path to secure your dream home.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Music.
(00:07):
All right, welcome to the second part of our series on homeownership and the
path to homeownership. My name is Matt Sochi.
I am your host. I'm also alongside Eric Watson, Mark Jackson.
All right, welcome guys.
Last week or last episode, we had a great discussion on the paths to homeownership
and what that kind of entails.
(00:28):
And we talked a little bit about that, but today we're going to dive a little bit deeper.
So we're going to talk about understanding the pre-approval process.
Process. I think this is a big topic.
It really is the meat and potatoes of the first step in actually making an offer on a home.
Probably the most important step. Absolutely. You know, there's so many things
(00:48):
that go into getting qualified and pre-approved.
And then the steps out to that are actually where it becomes a little bit more
fun, you know, I think in my opinion.
So we're going to kind of guide you guys through that, talk about what the pre-approval process looks.
So if you're out there looking to buy or have not bought yet,
or maybe you bought a home 20 years ago. A lot of things have changed since 2008.
We're going to get you prepared for those next steps. We're going to talk about
(01:11):
a couple of different things. So that way you're ready to buy that next home.
So the first thing is, you know, talking about the pre-approval process and its significance.
So on our end, as mortgage loan originators, our job is to talk to clients,
usually from our realtor referrals or different avenues that we get clients
from, and then have that discussion on getting them pre-approved.
(01:34):
And it's very, very important, especially in this market.
I think COVID was definitely where it got really crazy because there were so
many offers on different homes.
But getting pre-approved is really the key to the success of the journey to
getting the keys to the home.
So the importance behind that and what we're going to talk about is all the
different things that go through that and how you can get prepared for those
(01:58):
next steps on your journey.
So Eric why is approval essential for first-time homebuyers and how does it
differ from a pre-qualification.
Essentially what most, at least in the state of Florida, I can speak to that.
Realtors are going to want before they're ever going to take anybody out to
(02:22):
go shopping for homes per se would be an actual pre-approval.
Because the pre-approval process at the end of the day means that somebody like Mark, myself,
Matt, Matt has basically verified and validated that a potential home buyer is who they are.
(02:42):
They say they are one that their credit score, which is really the report card
on their credit history and their ability to pay back any debt they've previously
incurred is obviously in good standing.
Then we need to verify and validate their income. And we mentioned on the previous
show that we wanted ideally two years of similar work history in a similar field.
(03:07):
And part of that process, the ultimate validation of it is show me your pay stubs.
So we would require two months of pay stubs to verify and validate that the
income adds up to what I'm sure the borrower shared in conversation. conversation.
And then we need to verify and validate the liabilities that come with that.
So in other words, do you have outstanding credit or do you have outstanding student loan debt?
(03:32):
Do you have outstanding credit card debt? Do you have outstanding automobile loans?
Those sort of things. And really what they're looking for and what a lender
is looking for in that process is to know that you have the room in your budget
to make that monthly pay.
Music.
(03:53):
What's the difference between a pre-qualification and a pre-approval?
Pre-qualification is less formal. What's the biggest difference?
The biggest difference is in a pre-approval, I've laid eyes on all of those documents.
I've run the credit check, and I know that I'm putting my name on a piece of
paper so that both the borrower's real estate agent and the potential seller's
(04:16):
real estate agent knows that that income, those liabilities,
that credit score, all of that information has been verified and validated.
Yeah i talked to a client not too long ago that went online to
get you know pre-approved and i was
like oh okay so you already submitted all your documents your
w-2s your pay stubs you pulled your credit all those fun things
and it's like no word of mouth i'm like oh you got a word word of mouth pre-qualification
(04:42):
and i'm like all right well we're gonna start over and we're gonna do the real
deal now and they're like whoa you know that's a lot different than what they
went through And that's a big thing out there is that a lot of people in this market,
you know, they do have what I call foo-foo, you know, pre-approvals.
And that's where it comes in when you work with somebody like us at Premier
Mortgage Consultants is that we do soup to nuts, everything.
(05:05):
And so it's bulletproof. How about Mark?
What are some, you know, scenarios or highlights and what are the benefits of being pre-approved?
You know, the pre-approval, especially the one we do here, where it's legit
form of credit and really looking at things a little bit closer,
actually a lot closer probably than pre-qualification, shows the strength of your offer.
(05:25):
And today's market, it's just not likely that you're going to be able to even look at homes.
You may be able to look at homes, but your offer is probably not going to be
taken seriously unless you have a pre-approval.
Yeah, I don't understand why sometimes realtors go out and maybe it's the fear
of them, the client, of getting another realtor and showing them homes and then
(05:46):
they're surprised when it doesn't work out, right?
Or they don't understand that the clients don't understand that,
you know, what they're looking for is out of their budget. And I think that's
a big thing is because our job is when we work with our realtor partners We
don't want to waste their time and they don't want to waste our time, right?
Even though for our time like we enjoy talking to people and if they're not
ready now and the whole theory behind this is the Path to homeownership is that
(06:08):
if they're not ready now,
they will be ready I have people that reached out over Easter with my CRM and
I haven't talked to him in three years and also like hey We've been watching
you and listening and doing the things he told us to do and I think we're ready
now And that's the whole purpose of it,
path. So very valid point there as well. So it bulletproofs your deal.
(06:29):
And I think it's worth noting too, that we use proprietary software that we
pay an annual subscription for.
And when we issue that pre-approval letter to our client and ultimately their
representing real estate agent, they know we have run their file through the exact same same, uh,
(06:51):
set of parameters and gauntlet of approvals that are in the federally controlled guidelines.
So they know that as you mentioned, it really is a bulletproof pre-approval. Yeah.
If we submit that file to a lender, run it through underwriting,
we know we're going to get conditional approval and there really probably won't
be that many conditions. Yeah. It's spot on.
(07:12):
All right. Well, let's talk a little bit about the documents that are required.
So a lot of people have questions like, Oh, what do I need to get pre-approved?
And I'm going to list out a couple of them. So I think the most important,
well, actually, I know the most important one is obviously income, right?
And for us, what that means is if you're self-employed, that means we need your
two years of tax returns.
(07:33):
If you have a corporation, you will need your business returns as well as your personal.
And if you're a wage earner, simple, just your last two years of W-2.
So if you have the same job, very easy. If you have multiple jobs,
we would need all of them to put together the two-year work history.
After that is assets, because it's good for us to know how much money are we working with.
(07:56):
Some people are kind of scared, like, oh, you know, if they have $25,000.
I'm like, listen, we don't need to use all your money, but it helps strengthen
your pre-approval with reserves and stuff like that.
And so we got assets, income. What else do we really need?
Well, liabilities, those are the credit check. Yeah. And I say assets and income,
(08:18):
we are going to need two years worth of W-2s or in the self-employed.
We want those taxes because that illustrates a trend of the income,
not just have had a job for six months or I've had, you know,
been employed in this particular field for a shorter duration of time.
It establishes over a two-year time frame the consistency of the income so that
(08:39):
at the end of the day, the lender knows that there's a good significant probability
they're going to be able to meet the demands of whatever that monthly mortgage ends up.
Well, and we'll go into other episodes where we talk about if you are self-employed,
we have this whole other sector of mortgages where we could get around all that
called the non-qualified mortgage sector. So if you're self-employed, stay tuned.
(09:02):
We're going to have those episodes coming up in the future.
So we talked about the documents and everything. Eric, what about like when
you talk to clients sometimes and, you know, you say, hey, listen, we need this.
And they're like, oh, my God, I don't know how to get that. So let's talk a
little bit about how can we help people game plan if they're not buying right
now, but to be prepared if it's over the summer.
(09:23):
What kind of like tips and tricks do you have for them?
You're obviously going to need your W-2s, as we previously mentioned.
And I think the next thing that you're going to have to have is bank statements.
So you're going to log on to your personal banking loan accounts with whatever
lender you have, or not lender, but actual bank that you work with,
(09:44):
and download copies of those bank statements in PDF format.
You cannot take pictures of your bank statements.
And we unfortunately you know
we get folks that try and do that from time to time because they're not familiar with
the process you can't take 35 pictures of your wells fargo account
you know and unfortunately the reason that you can't is at some point in time
(10:05):
somebody took pictures and then photoshopped the financial information either
changed account numbers and or changed balances and took advantage somewhere
somehow so the lenders all prefer pdf format bank statements.
Exactly so and again if
you have um if you don't have those documents on hand now
(10:27):
now is a good time to start digging them up and a
good best practice i always tell people i do for myself now is always keep a
folder on your desktop or in a secure place where you could access you know
um if you're variable income a waitress or overtime last pay stub of each year
so we can get determined what that income is.
(10:48):
W-2s, keep them in a file. So that way it's really easily accessible.
So you're not trying to log into some HR website for a job you don't work for anymore, et cetera.
So just keep those on hand. It definitely makes it a lot easier.
And then Mark, I think you had some piece to add to that. Oh,
you guys cover most of it.
Music.
(11:11):
Everything's computerized today, and like Matt said, make a folder.
Even if you're not looking right now, make a folder of the information,
your tax returns, your W-2s, your bank statements, so they'll be there when you're ready.
And just make a list for what you're all going to need and keep it in the file.
And you may need it for other things also.
Yeah. Just have access to it quickly. We'll help you.
(11:32):
So a lot of people get concerned with the bank statements.
You can go on any bank. I don't know of any nowadays where you can't just go
onto the website. Not that part.
Looking at all the stuff that they spend their money on. I can't help you with
that. She goes, don't judge.
We eat out a lot and order a lot of DoorDash. I was like, honestly,
(11:54):
I don't even look at the bank statement except for the number.
I just want to know how much assets you have. Now, if there's not sufficient
funds and you have over deposits, overdrafts, that can be an issue.
You because on manual underwrites you can't have those so we're
not looking to see that you know you're spending money at
(12:15):
you know abc liquor or total wine
total wine or doordash we don't care
we're not looking at it really what the underwriters are looking
for is a you don't have any um overdrafts number
one number two sometimes people have buy
here pay your cars where you don't have a note but you pay
it and then they pick up on that so another tip or trick um you know if you
(12:39):
have anything like that be transparent with us but that's all they're looking
at for the bank statements so just as an fia out there we don't look or care
unless something pops up they just look at large transactions so if you have
thousands of dollars a good one transactions,
moving money in and moving that money out then there's a high degree of probability
at some point in time an underwriter is going to ask questions it's got to be
(13:00):
sourced absolutely Anything over 1% of the loan amount for FHA and anything
50% or higher of your income on conventional loan.
So if you make $10,000 a month and you have a deposit for $7,000 outside of
payroll, you're going to need to be able to source that or those assets can't be used.
Music.
(13:21):
We're not the CIA. We're not inspectors. Does not matter to us.
Um, all right. So the application process. So this is kind of our favorite part,
I think is just really getting to know who we're working with and how it kind of works is,
you know, for me, I do have a loan officer assistant, but you know, at times, um,
we both tackle it. So it's really just having the first conversation.
(13:43):
And I think that's the most exciting one because then we get to understand and
know who we're we're working with.
And we have different tools that, you know, we use, such as we call it the four
boxes, you know, we talk about income, assets, jobs, credit, liabilities, etc.
But we really want to understand their scenario, everyone has a different scenario
where they're coming from.
So it's initially my process is we get them to fill out our pre application,
(14:08):
very simple takes about five minutes to fill out.
I just had an 82 year old fill it out in four and a half minutes,
new record, ding, ding, ding.
It's very easy and simple. We did that on purpose so that people aren't taking
30 minutes out of their day to fill out an application.
Once they fill out the application, they upload their docs to a secure portal.
So those are documents we just talked about.
(14:28):
We never pull credit without having our mortgage consultation first.
That means just after we get that, the pre-app tells us the story.
That's what I always tell people. It tells the story.
My realtor partners all know, have them tell the story. Then I schedule a call,
probably a five-minute conversation.
Sometimes we become best friends. It might be 30 minutes.
But it's just really understanding if everything sounds good.
(14:49):
Then we go to the next steps, pull the credit, get the docs verified,
and then we run it through our desktop underwriter, which gives us the initial approval.
If it's all good, check marks. And then we issue the letter.
And the cool thing with our company and how we do it is with the letter is that
it gives the realtor and the borrower the opportunity to change the pre-approval lower.
(15:12):
So we kind of max it out. So that way, if Mark is mowing his lawn on a Saturday
afternoon and 911, we need to lower the pre-approval price, whatever,
you could do it yourself and regenerate that PDF. And I think that's fantastic.
And a lot of people don't do that. They have a Word document and you got to
be kind of in front of the computer to do that.
(15:33):
So that's a little bit about our process and how we do it. And typically,
and Eric's going to talk about that, is, you know, once we have that,
how long does it take to do a pre-approval?
We can typically do them, you know, it really is up to the borrower.
You know, when they initially fill out that application, they're going to be
(15:54):
prompted by the software to upload all of those documents.
Your bank statements, your previous two pay stubs, copy of your driver's license,
you know, sort of those things that we're going to need to validate your identity,
one. Two, validate your income.
Three, validate the available funds that are going to be used for earnest money
(16:15):
deposit and or closing costs.
And then, obviously, we're going to figure out the liabilities once we run credit. it.
And there's also some other questions that typically we like to ask in there.
Hey, do you have any recent big purchases that may not show up on your credit report?
What's your history like on making rental payments, especially as a new first-time home buyer?
There's a lot of lenders that are going to do verification of rent form,
(16:39):
and they're going to ask whomever you're paying rent to, how many times have you been late?
And those are the little nuances that a seasoned seasoned professionals going
to know that could be a potential stumbling block.
So really, that's what we do here at Premier Mortgage Consultants.
We're familiar with a lot of those. We're seasoned professionals.
Passionate about what we do.
(16:59):
So when we get into this pre-approval process, we've covered all of those points.
Typically, we can get a pre-approval out in an hour, sometimes two.
And if it's a little bit more complicated, you know, if they're self-employed
or have rental properties, there's a lot more that goes into the,
you know, focusing on first first-time homebuyers that are wage earners, same day for sure.
And absolutely. We don't work just for everybody out there. We are not Monday
(17:22):
through Friday, eight to five or whatever.
We're not a bank. We all work individually for ourselves.
So if you need a pre-approval on a Sunday afternoon, there's a good chance Eric's
going to be free. Mark's going to be free. I'm going to be free.
Eric, you were talking about how you were on the phone last night at 10 o'clock at night with a client.
We don't have hours. And that's why people like us because you're going to to
(17:44):
have that communication, you know, no matter what, you know,
that goes from our realtor to the buyers, our operations team,
it's all in house. We're all family, you know, and that's a big piece there.
And then Mark talking about that. So I just want to add that whenever you do
complete the prep, just make sure you include all of your assets,
all of your, you know, just the information that's there, just make sure it's complete.
(18:08):
And, you know, just, we will find out if there's something, the lender will
find out if you miss something,
if you're, you know, a co-signer on your brother's condo or whatever it is,
it will come up through the process and it's just going to make everything much
smoother there if you just sort of lay it all out there on the table.
So for the record, the lenders are the CIA.
So they do run LexisNexis and Mark, you actually just had a situation like that
(18:33):
where, if you want to talk real quick about it.
Well, the borrower just didn't disclose everything to us on the application
and it just, it comes up, you know, the searches they do are extensive,
the information they'll find it.
And it, you know, once we figured it out, we had to take a few steps to work
around it, it worked fine and the deal closed, but it just slowed it down a
(18:56):
little bit when you have unexpected things come up.
Yeah. And that's where in the conversation, like I love when clients say,
I'm just being transparent with you. I was like, listen, I'm on your side,
you know, and that's what everyone needs to understand. We're on your side.
We don't work for a bank. We're the advocates.
Yeah. We're the advocates in the middle man. So, or middle woman.
So we are here on your side. We want to understand everything and know everything.
So that way we could structure it the right way. And we don't have to worry
(19:18):
about any of those issues. Yeah.
We want it to work for you the best way as possible. cool. We want you to be
happy because if you're not happy, it's not going to work out well for us either.
Yeah. And we don't want to get three quarters of the way through and all of
a sudden bust because something came up that we didn't know about either.
Cause you know, our, our processors do work very hard to get all the deals through the door.
So, you know, the benefits of being pre-approved, I think this is very,
(19:41):
very important is that, you know, I run into this a lot.
I talk about a lot is payment shock is number one.
There's a lot of people and what payment Payment shock means is if you're used
to making a payment, let's just say $2,000, you're buying in today's market
at $450,000, that payment is $3,500 a month. That's a $1,500 a month payment shock.
Right. And you might love the house and it might work on our end debt to income
(20:04):
ratio wise, but it's still a payment shock.
So I think being pre-approved up front, even if you're not looking right now
and maybe it's over the summer, our pre-approvals for the record,
the credit report is good for 120 days.
So that gives you four months to close on a house. And all we got to do if it
goes past that is just to re-pull the credit, you know, just because things
(20:24):
change, you know, people lose debt, gain debt, whatever.
So it's very, very important because payment shock, I think,
is a huge thing right now because interest rates are high and it's not forever.
And we'll talk about that in another episode, the different programs that we have.
We'll deep dive into all the programs because we have buy downs and a whole
bunch of different stuff to help offset that.
But our job is to bullet proof your deal.
(20:48):
Make sure you are guaranteed to get that house. And I will tell you,
and I'm talking about our company as a whole, because I can speak for myself,
but I know from the company level, every single contract that we put in guarantees a close.
I haven't seen anything fall through unless it's a condo that's non-warrantable
or it's an appraisal issue or an inspection issue.
(21:10):
It's never a client income asset issue.
I've had a couple fail, in all honesty, not to be a fly in the glass of wine
or anything like that, but it goes back to our client, our borrower,
failing to disclose something.
And for some odd reason, we don't see it on the credit report,
(21:30):
but the underwriter has access to databases and information that we don't necessarily
always have access to. And boom, surprise!
Surprises are not good in our industry. Absolutely not. We despise them.
Don't make big purchases prior to closing. That was one of the examples.
Somebody went out and bought a nice brand spanking new pickup truck a couple
(21:53):
weeks before closing and tipped a deal to approve. So when things are out of our control.
Exactly. We have no control. So when things are in our control, they always close.
And we school our clients on that as well. We have to.
Hey, don't be opening new credit. it don't be
taking over anybody's debt and save your money you
(22:14):
know you can't you got to have enough to close and all that
stuff at the end what about you know
what is a pre-approval do as far as
for the client when maybe they're looking at properties and either or go ahead
mark no good okay you're the seasoned when when the client or ultimately the
(22:36):
client's agent hands that pre-approval letter over with an offer,
with a genuine offer,
then the seller's agent is obviously going to review that and know that this
is a bona fide, good faith offer on to purchase the property. Yeah.
(22:56):
I can just, you know, relay how it affected me.
And when the last Last time I bought a house, we bought a house in Goongay Estates here in Naples.
And honestly, it was a dream house and it was super undervalued.
So we came in and we were pre-approved. And honestly, there are so many people
looking at it that if it wasn't, excuse me, if it was not, if we hadn't been
(23:18):
pre-approved, there's no way we would have got, because there was 10 people
standing behind us ready to pay.
Yeah, no, for sure. And they're going to look at that. And I'll tell you what,
like with the realtors I do work with, I always make sure when you put in that
offer, copy me on the email.
I like to jump in and say, hey, just want to introduce myself.
And that's a big thing, too, is this will probably be our next episode is after
(23:39):
you're pre-approved, what are the next steps?
And working with a great realtor and a great mortgage person,
a team, it makes this flawless.
And I'll tell you, I've personally probably done over 500 loans and I sell a
lot of them because I open myself and give myself to, you know,
(24:01):
know, up to the listing agent to have that discussion,
you know, to, to really bulletproof and validate our client.
And I think that's a big piece there is that it, it's the best thing that you
could possibly do is make sure you're working with a great mortgage person and
make sure you're working with a great realtor and make sure if they work together,
that's like, you have the ultimate dream team, the ultimate team.
(24:23):
Communication fosters cohesiveness.
A hundred percent.
Your loan officer and the real estate agent should be making the process as
smooth and painless as possible.
And like you said, as a team, they'll find you what you need and get you the right loan.
I mean, we're obligated to give people information that's going to give them
(24:43):
the right loan for their situation.
Absolutely. And trust me, I've done crazy deals. I was like,
give us a 14-day finance contingency, which is normally 30.
Give us a a 21 day, you know, whatever. And we'll have it all closed 30 days or less.
And then our typical closing times, high two weeks, typical business days.
So 10 to 14 business days, depending on everyone titles got to move.
(25:08):
Assurance has got to move their praise. There's a lot of moving parts with that,
but if everything's clean and easy and I've gotten clear closes in seven business days.
If you see stuff online that says three business days, it's not even possible.
Just FYI for the record. I see it all the time. I'm like, well,
per trade, you got to wait eight days from submitting to not.
So the last thing is, and not every loan originator or company has access to
(25:37):
this, is what I like to call a VAL.
And VAL, it's a verified approval letter.
Better okay so something really neat with this
is that we could actually submit the file
to a lender we have a few of them that will do these as a to be
determined it actually goes through underwriting you
have an underwriter that means underwriter it's like
(25:58):
you had a contract right they underwrite everything assets
credit du which is desktop underwriter
for the approval if it's conventional fha va whatever
it's going to be and they guarantee that it's
going to be bulletproof as long as insurance the
appraisal and title are cleared and that
(26:20):
that's before property has been identified right correct so
once you get a contract all you gotta do is update it put in the address it
goes to trid which means disclosures are going out and you're there's nothing
left for the borrower to really do just pick an insurance company makes it easy
yeah so i mean that's something that we offer i use it a lot when i have variable
income or anything anything outside the ordinary,
(26:41):
just because it's good to have a legitimate second eye on it.
So that's something that we offer for our clients too, is verified approval
letter, which also makes your closings extremely faster.
And then you actually get another letter on top of our pre-approval letter that
it's verified approval letter.
Like it's been by an underwriter and not by me, Eric Marker,
(27:03):
Johnny from Johnny's bank down the road.
So do you guys have anything Anything to add?
Not that I can think of off the top of my head. I think we've covered just about
everything that you need as far as like the pre-approval process leading up
to, hey, I'm gonna put an offer in on a home.
And I have to say, I've only been doing this for a month or two.
(27:26):
And the way that Premier Mortgage Consultants has worked and from what I've
seen in my years of working in the bank.
It's, we do everybody outside the box. Every single deal is individual, as you are, as we all are.
And it's just been amazing to see how hard everybody works here to make the
(27:48):
deal work for the client.
I forgot my new slogan is PMC.
We make lending easy.
I don't know if it's easy, but we'll make it work.
Yeah, it's really not that big of a process. It really isn't.
It um once you've got a few loans under your belt you you've seen it all you
know i've been through every possible not every i've got a new one the other
(28:13):
day i was like i haven't seen that yet,
um but it's really it's not rocket science and a lot of you out there are going
to be the easy pre-approvals and the nice thing is with us and we alluded to
it yesterday is that we do have 49 49, thank you, Mark,
49 different lenders, which means
you get to go shopping for 49 different rates, 49 different products,
(28:35):
whatever it is. We got it all.
So we do the extremely tough deals and we do the extremely easy deals.
So just keep that in mind. If you're a realtor out there or a potential buyer
down the road is that if we can't make it work, I promise you there is not one
person in this world that will. We got it all.
(28:57):
Got it all. All right. Well, great, great chat. Great information.
Nothing to add. So we are going to kick off our next series,
which will be our third episode, which is going to be what are the next steps
after you get pre-approved?
What are the next steps and we will probably have a
(29:19):
guest with us um a realtor and hopefully um we can get that all squared away
so thank you everybody for listening and watching and if you guys have any questions
at all feel free to send us a message and we would love to work with you if
we haven't already thank you for listening to beyond the blueprint.
Music.
Music.
(00:07):
All right, welcome to the second part of our series on homeownership and the
path to homeownership. My name is Matt Sochi.
I am your host. I'm also alongside Eric Watson, Mark Jackson.
All right, welcome guys.
Last week or last episode, we had a great discussion on the paths to homeownership
and what that kind of entails.
(00:28):
And we talked a little bit about that, but today we're going to dive a little bit deeper.
So we're going to talk about understanding the pre-approval process.
Process. I think this is a big topic.
It really is the meat and potatoes of the first step in actually making an offer on a home.
Probably the most important step. Absolutely. You know, there's so many things
(00:48):
that go into getting qualified and pre-approved.
And then the steps out to that are actually where it becomes a little bit more
fun, you know, I think in my opinion.
So we're going to kind of guide you guys through that, talk about what the pre-approval process looks.
So if you're out there looking to buy or have not bought yet,
or maybe you bought a home 20 years ago. A lot of things have changed since 2008.
We're going to get you prepared for those next steps. We're going to talk about
(01:11):
a couple of different things. So that way you're ready to buy that next home.
So the first thing is, you know, talking about the pre-approval process and its significance.
So on our end, as mortgage loan originators, our job is to talk to clients,
usually from our realtor referrals or different avenues that we get clients
from, and then have that discussion on getting them pre-approved.
(01:34):
And it's very, very important, especially in this market.
I think COVID was definitely where it got really crazy because there were so
many offers on different homes.
But getting pre-approved is really the key to the success of the journey to
getting the keys to the home.
So the importance behind that and what we're going to talk about is all the
different things that go through that and how you can get prepared for those
(01:58):
next steps on your journey.
So Eric why is approval essential for first-time homebuyers and how does it
differ from a pre-qualification.
Essentially what most, at least in the state of Florida, I can speak to that.
Realtors are going to want before they're ever going to take anybody out to
(02:22):
go shopping for homes per se would be an actual pre-approval.
Because the pre-approval process at the end of the day means that somebody like Mark, myself,
Matt, Matt has basically verified and validated that a potential home buyer is who they are.
(02:42):
They say they are one that their credit score, which is really the report card
on their credit history and their ability to pay back any debt they've previously
incurred is obviously in good standing.
Then we need to verify and validate their income. And we mentioned on the previous
show that we wanted ideally two years of similar work history in a similar field.
(03:07):
And part of that process, the ultimate validation of it is show me your pay stubs.
So we would require two months of pay stubs to verify and validate that the
income adds up to what I'm sure the borrower shared in conversation. conversation.
And then we need to verify and validate the liabilities that come with that.
So in other words, do you have outstanding credit or do you have outstanding student loan debt?
(03:32):
Do you have outstanding credit card debt? Do you have outstanding automobile loans?
Those sort of things. And really what they're looking for and what a lender
is looking for in that process is to know that you have the room in your budget
to make that monthly pay.
Music.
(03:53):
What's the difference between a pre-qualification and a pre-approval?
Pre-qualification is less formal. What's the biggest difference?
The biggest difference is in a pre-approval, I've laid eyes on all of those documents.
I've run the credit check, and I know that I'm putting my name on a piece of
paper so that both the borrower's real estate agent and the potential seller's
(04:16):
real estate agent knows that that income, those liabilities,
that credit score, all of that information has been verified and validated.
Yeah i talked to a client not too long ago that went online to
get you know pre-approved and i was
like oh okay so you already submitted all your documents your
w-2s your pay stubs you pulled your credit all those fun things
and it's like no word of mouth i'm like oh you got a word word of mouth pre-qualification
(04:42):
and i'm like all right well we're gonna start over and we're gonna do the real
deal now and they're like whoa you know that's a lot different than what they
went through And that's a big thing out there is that a lot of people in this market,
you know, they do have what I call foo-foo, you know, pre-approvals.
And that's where it comes in when you work with somebody like us at Premier
Mortgage Consultants is that we do soup to nuts, everything.
(05:05):
And so it's bulletproof. How about Mark?
What are some, you know, scenarios or highlights and what are the benefits of being pre-approved?
You know, the pre-approval, especially the one we do here, where it's legit
form of credit and really looking at things a little bit closer,
actually a lot closer probably than pre-qualification, shows the strength of your offer.
(05:25):
And today's market, it's just not likely that you're going to be able to even look at homes.
You may be able to look at homes, but your offer is probably not going to be
taken seriously unless you have a pre-approval.
Yeah, I don't understand why sometimes realtors go out and maybe it's the fear
of them, the client, of getting another realtor and showing them homes and then
(05:46):
they're surprised when it doesn't work out, right?
Or they don't understand that the clients don't understand that,
you know, what they're looking for is out of their budget. And I think that's
a big thing is because our job is when we work with our realtor partners We
don't want to waste their time and they don't want to waste our time, right?
Even though for our time like we enjoy talking to people and if they're not
ready now and the whole theory behind this is the Path to homeownership is that
(06:08):
if they're not ready now,
they will be ready I have people that reached out over Easter with my CRM and
I haven't talked to him in three years and also like hey We've been watching
you and listening and doing the things he told us to do and I think we're ready
now And that's the whole purpose of it,
path. So very valid point there as well. So it bulletproofs your deal.
(06:29):
And I think it's worth noting too, that we use proprietary software that we
pay an annual subscription for.
And when we issue that pre-approval letter to our client and ultimately their
representing real estate agent, they know we have run their file through the exact same same, uh,
(06:51):
set of parameters and gauntlet of approvals that are in the federally controlled guidelines.
So they know that as you mentioned, it really is a bulletproof pre-approval. Yeah.
If we submit that file to a lender, run it through underwriting,
we know we're going to get conditional approval and there really probably won't
be that many conditions. Yeah. It's spot on.
(07:12):
All right. Well, let's talk a little bit about the documents that are required.
So a lot of people have questions like, Oh, what do I need to get pre-approved?
And I'm going to list out a couple of them. So I think the most important,
well, actually, I know the most important one is obviously income, right?
And for us, what that means is if you're self-employed, that means we need your
two years of tax returns.
(07:33):
If you have a corporation, you will need your business returns as well as your personal.
And if you're a wage earner, simple, just your last two years of W-2.
So if you have the same job, very easy. If you have multiple jobs,
we would need all of them to put together the two-year work history.
After that is assets, because it's good for us to know how much money are we working with.
(07:56):
Some people are kind of scared, like, oh, you know, if they have $25,000.
I'm like, listen, we don't need to use all your money, but it helps strengthen
your pre-approval with reserves and stuff like that.
And so we got assets, income. What else do we really need?
Well, liabilities, those are the credit check. Yeah. And I say assets and income,
(08:18):
we are going to need two years worth of W-2s or in the self-employed.
We want those taxes because that illustrates a trend of the income,
not just have had a job for six months or I've had, you know,
been employed in this particular field for a shorter duration of time.
It establishes over a two-year time frame the consistency of the income so that
(08:39):
at the end of the day, the lender knows that there's a good significant probability
they're going to be able to meet the demands of whatever that monthly mortgage ends up.
Well, and we'll go into other episodes where we talk about if you are self-employed,
we have this whole other sector of mortgages where we could get around all that
called the non-qualified mortgage sector. So if you're self-employed, stay tuned.
(09:02):
We're going to have those episodes coming up in the future.
So we talked about the documents and everything. Eric, what about like when
you talk to clients sometimes and, you know, you say, hey, listen, we need this.
And they're like, oh, my God, I don't know how to get that. So let's talk a
little bit about how can we help people game plan if they're not buying right
now, but to be prepared if it's over the summer.
(09:23):
What kind of like tips and tricks do you have for them?
You're obviously going to need your W-2s, as we previously mentioned.
And I think the next thing that you're going to have to have is bank statements.
So you're going to log on to your personal banking loan accounts with whatever
lender you have, or not lender, but actual bank that you work with,
(09:44):
and download copies of those bank statements in PDF format.
You cannot take pictures of your bank statements.
And we unfortunately you know
we get folks that try and do that from time to time because they're not familiar with
the process you can't take 35 pictures of your wells fargo account
you know and unfortunately the reason that you can't is at some point in time
(10:05):
somebody took pictures and then photoshopped the financial information either
changed account numbers and or changed balances and took advantage somewhere
somehow so the lenders all prefer pdf format bank statements.
Exactly so and again if
you have um if you don't have those documents on hand now
(10:27):
now is a good time to start digging them up and a
good best practice i always tell people i do for myself now is always keep a
folder on your desktop or in a secure place where you could access you know
um if you're variable income a waitress or overtime last pay stub of each year
so we can get determined what that income is.
(10:48):
W-2s, keep them in a file. So that way it's really easily accessible.
So you're not trying to log into some HR website for a job you don't work for anymore, et cetera.
So just keep those on hand. It definitely makes it a lot easier.
And then Mark, I think you had some piece to add to that. Oh,
you guys cover most of it.
Music.
(11:11):
Everything's computerized today, and like Matt said, make a folder.
Even if you're not looking right now, make a folder of the information,
your tax returns, your W-2s, your bank statements, so they'll be there when you're ready.
And just make a list for what you're all going to need and keep it in the file.
And you may need it for other things also.
Yeah. Just have access to it quickly. We'll help you.
(11:32):
So a lot of people get concerned with the bank statements.
You can go on any bank. I don't know of any nowadays where you can't just go
onto the website. Not that part.
Looking at all the stuff that they spend their money on. I can't help you with
that. She goes, don't judge.
We eat out a lot and order a lot of DoorDash. I was like, honestly,
(11:54):
I don't even look at the bank statement except for the number.
I just want to know how much assets you have. Now, if there's not sufficient
funds and you have over deposits, overdrafts, that can be an issue.
You because on manual underwrites you can't have those so we're
not looking to see that you know you're spending money at
(12:15):
you know abc liquor or total wine
total wine or doordash we don't care
we're not looking at it really what the underwriters are looking
for is a you don't have any um overdrafts number
one number two sometimes people have buy
here pay your cars where you don't have a note but you pay
it and then they pick up on that so another tip or trick um you know if you
(12:39):
have anything like that be transparent with us but that's all they're looking
at for the bank statements so just as an fia out there we don't look or care
unless something pops up they just look at large transactions so if you have
thousands of dollars a good one transactions,
moving money in and moving that money out then there's a high degree of probability
at some point in time an underwriter is going to ask questions it's got to be
(13:00):
sourced absolutely Anything over 1% of the loan amount for FHA and anything
50% or higher of your income on conventional loan.
So if you make $10,000 a month and you have a deposit for $7,000 outside of
payroll, you're going to need to be able to source that or those assets can't be used.
Music.
(13:21):
We're not the CIA. We're not inspectors. Does not matter to us.
Um, all right. So the application process. So this is kind of our favorite part,
I think is just really getting to know who we're working with and how it kind of works is,
you know, for me, I do have a loan officer assistant, but you know, at times, um,
we both tackle it. So it's really just having the first conversation.
(13:43):
And I think that's the most exciting one because then we get to understand and
know who we're we're working with.
And we have different tools that, you know, we use, such as we call it the four
boxes, you know, we talk about income, assets, jobs, credit, liabilities, etc.
But we really want to understand their scenario, everyone has a different scenario
where they're coming from.
So it's initially my process is we get them to fill out our pre application,
(14:08):
very simple takes about five minutes to fill out.
I just had an 82 year old fill it out in four and a half minutes,
new record, ding, ding, ding.
It's very easy and simple. We did that on purpose so that people aren't taking
30 minutes out of their day to fill out an application.
Once they fill out the application, they upload their docs to a secure portal.
So those are documents we just talked about.
(14:28):
We never pull credit without having our mortgage consultation first.
That means just after we get that, the pre-app tells us the story.
That's what I always tell people. It tells the story.
My realtor partners all know, have them tell the story. Then I schedule a call,
probably a five-minute conversation.
Sometimes we become best friends. It might be 30 minutes.
But it's just really understanding if everything sounds good.
(14:49):
Then we go to the next steps, pull the credit, get the docs verified,
and then we run it through our desktop underwriter, which gives us the initial approval.
If it's all good, check marks. And then we issue the letter.
And the cool thing with our company and how we do it is with the letter is that
it gives the realtor and the borrower the opportunity to change the pre-approval lower.
(15:12):
So we kind of max it out. So that way, if Mark is mowing his lawn on a Saturday
afternoon and 911, we need to lower the pre-approval price, whatever,
you could do it yourself and regenerate that PDF. And I think that's fantastic.
And a lot of people don't do that. They have a Word document and you got to
be kind of in front of the computer to do that.
(15:33):
So that's a little bit about our process and how we do it. And typically,
and Eric's going to talk about that, is, you know, once we have that,
how long does it take to do a pre-approval?
We can typically do them, you know, it really is up to the borrower.
You know, when they initially fill out that application, they're going to be
(15:54):
prompted by the software to upload all of those documents.
Your bank statements, your previous two pay stubs, copy of your driver's license,
you know, sort of those things that we're going to need to validate your identity,
one. Two, validate your income.
Three, validate the available funds that are going to be used for earnest money
(16:15):
deposit and or closing costs.
And then, obviously, we're going to figure out the liabilities once we run credit. it.
And there's also some other questions that typically we like to ask in there.
Hey, do you have any recent big purchases that may not show up on your credit report?
What's your history like on making rental payments, especially as a new first-time home buyer?
There's a lot of lenders that are going to do verification of rent form,
(16:39):
and they're going to ask whomever you're paying rent to, how many times have you been late?
And those are the little nuances that a seasoned seasoned professionals going
to know that could be a potential stumbling block.
So really, that's what we do here at Premier Mortgage Consultants.
We're familiar with a lot of those. We're seasoned professionals.
Passionate about what we do.
(16:59):
So when we get into this pre-approval process, we've covered all of those points.
Typically, we can get a pre-approval out in an hour, sometimes two.
And if it's a little bit more complicated, you know, if they're self-employed
or have rental properties, there's a lot more that goes into the,
you know, focusing on first first-time homebuyers that are wage earners, same day for sure.
And absolutely. We don't work just for everybody out there. We are not Monday
(17:22):
through Friday, eight to five or whatever.
We're not a bank. We all work individually for ourselves.
So if you need a pre-approval on a Sunday afternoon, there's a good chance Eric's
going to be free. Mark's going to be free. I'm going to be free.
Eric, you were talking about how you were on the phone last night at 10 o'clock at night with a client.
We don't have hours. And that's why people like us because you're going to to
(17:44):
have that communication, you know, no matter what, you know,
that goes from our realtor to the buyers, our operations team,
it's all in house. We're all family, you know, and that's a big piece there.
And then Mark talking about that. So I just want to add that whenever you do
complete the prep, just make sure you include all of your assets,
all of your, you know, just the information that's there, just make sure it's complete.
(18:08):
And, you know, just, we will find out if there's something, the lender will
find out if you miss something,
if you're, you know, a co-signer on your brother's condo or whatever it is,
it will come up through the process and it's just going to make everything much
smoother there if you just sort of lay it all out there on the table.
So for the record, the lenders are the CIA.
So they do run LexisNexis and Mark, you actually just had a situation like that
(18:33):
where, if you want to talk real quick about it.
Well, the borrower just didn't disclose everything to us on the application
and it just, it comes up, you know, the searches they do are extensive,
the information they'll find it.
And it, you know, once we figured it out, we had to take a few steps to work
around it, it worked fine and the deal closed, but it just slowed it down a
(18:56):
little bit when you have unexpected things come up.
Yeah. And that's where in the conversation, like I love when clients say,
I'm just being transparent with you. I was like, listen, I'm on your side,
you know, and that's what everyone needs to understand. We're on your side.
We don't work for a bank. We're the advocates.
Yeah. We're the advocates in the middle man. So, or middle woman.
So we are here on your side. We want to understand everything and know everything.
So that way we could structure it the right way. And we don't have to worry
(19:18):
about any of those issues. Yeah.
We want it to work for you the best way as possible. cool. We want you to be
happy because if you're not happy, it's not going to work out well for us either.
Yeah. And we don't want to get three quarters of the way through and all of
a sudden bust because something came up that we didn't know about either.
Cause you know, our, our processors do work very hard to get all the deals through the door.
So, you know, the benefits of being pre-approved, I think this is very,
(19:41):
very important is that, you know, I run into this a lot.
I talk about a lot is payment shock is number one.
There's a lot of people and what payment Payment shock means is if you're used
to making a payment, let's just say $2,000, you're buying in today's market
at $450,000, that payment is $3,500 a month. That's a $1,500 a month payment shock.
Right. And you might love the house and it might work on our end debt to income
(20:04):
ratio wise, but it's still a payment shock.
So I think being pre-approved up front, even if you're not looking right now
and maybe it's over the summer, our pre-approvals for the record,
the credit report is good for 120 days.
So that gives you four months to close on a house. And all we got to do if it
goes past that is just to re-pull the credit, you know, just because things
(20:24):
change, you know, people lose debt, gain debt, whatever.
So it's very, very important because payment shock, I think,
is a huge thing right now because interest rates are high and it's not forever.
And we'll talk about that in another episode, the different programs that we have.
We'll deep dive into all the programs because we have buy downs and a whole
bunch of different stuff to help offset that.
But our job is to bullet proof your deal.
(20:48):
Make sure you are guaranteed to get that house. And I will tell you,
and I'm talking about our company as a whole, because I can speak for myself,
but I know from the company level, every single contract that we put in guarantees a close.
I haven't seen anything fall through unless it's a condo that's non-warrantable
or it's an appraisal issue or an inspection issue.
(21:10):
It's never a client income asset issue.
I've had a couple fail, in all honesty, not to be a fly in the glass of wine
or anything like that, but it goes back to our client, our borrower,
failing to disclose something.
And for some odd reason, we don't see it on the credit report,
(21:30):
but the underwriter has access to databases and information that we don't necessarily
always have access to. And boom, surprise!
Surprises are not good in our industry. Absolutely not. We despise them.
Don't make big purchases prior to closing. That was one of the examples.
Somebody went out and bought a nice brand spanking new pickup truck a couple
(21:53):
weeks before closing and tipped a deal to approve. So when things are out of our control.
Exactly. We have no control. So when things are in our control, they always close.
And we school our clients on that as well. We have to.
Hey, don't be opening new credit. it don't be
taking over anybody's debt and save your money you
(22:14):
know you can't you got to have enough to close and all that
stuff at the end what about you know
what is a pre-approval do as far as
for the client when maybe they're looking at properties and either or go ahead
mark no good okay you're the seasoned when when the client or ultimately the
(22:36):
client's agent hands that pre-approval letter over with an offer,
with a genuine offer,
then the seller's agent is obviously going to review that and know that this
is a bona fide, good faith offer on to purchase the property. Yeah.
(22:56):
I can just, you know, relay how it affected me.
And when the last Last time I bought a house, we bought a house in Goongay Estates here in Naples.
And honestly, it was a dream house and it was super undervalued.
So we came in and we were pre-approved. And honestly, there are so many people
looking at it that if it wasn't, excuse me, if it was not, if we hadn't been
(23:18):
pre-approved, there's no way we would have got, because there was 10 people
standing behind us ready to pay.
Yeah, no, for sure. And they're going to look at that. And I'll tell you what,
like with the realtors I do work with, I always make sure when you put in that
offer, copy me on the email.
I like to jump in and say, hey, just want to introduce myself.
And that's a big thing, too, is this will probably be our next episode is after
(23:39):
you're pre-approved, what are the next steps?
And working with a great realtor and a great mortgage person,
a team, it makes this flawless.
And I'll tell you, I've personally probably done over 500 loans and I sell a
lot of them because I open myself and give myself to, you know,
(24:01):
know, up to the listing agent to have that discussion,
you know, to, to really bulletproof and validate our client.
And I think that's a big piece there is that it, it's the best thing that you
could possibly do is make sure you're working with a great mortgage person and
make sure you're working with a great realtor and make sure if they work together,
that's like, you have the ultimate dream team, the ultimate team.
(24:23):
Communication fosters cohesiveness.
A hundred percent.
Your loan officer and the real estate agent should be making the process as
smooth and painless as possible.
And like you said, as a team, they'll find you what you need and get you the right loan.
I mean, we're obligated to give people information that's going to give them
(24:43):
the right loan for their situation.
Absolutely. And trust me, I've done crazy deals. I was like,
give us a 14-day finance contingency, which is normally 30.
Give us a a 21 day, you know, whatever. And we'll have it all closed 30 days or less.
And then our typical closing times, high two weeks, typical business days.
So 10 to 14 business days, depending on everyone titles got to move.
(25:08):
Assurance has got to move their praise. There's a lot of moving parts with that,
but if everything's clean and easy and I've gotten clear closes in seven business days.
If you see stuff online that says three business days, it's not even possible.
Just FYI for the record. I see it all the time. I'm like, well,
per trade, you got to wait eight days from submitting to not.
So the last thing is, and not every loan originator or company has access to
(25:37):
this, is what I like to call a VAL.
And VAL, it's a verified approval letter.
Better okay so something really neat with this
is that we could actually submit the file
to a lender we have a few of them that will do these as a to be
determined it actually goes through underwriting you
have an underwriter that means underwriter it's like
(25:58):
you had a contract right they underwrite everything assets
credit du which is desktop underwriter
for the approval if it's conventional fha va whatever
it's going to be and they guarantee that it's
going to be bulletproof as long as insurance the
appraisal and title are cleared and that
(26:20):
that's before property has been identified right correct so
once you get a contract all you gotta do is update it put in the address it
goes to trid which means disclosures are going out and you're there's nothing
left for the borrower to really do just pick an insurance company makes it easy
yeah so i mean that's something that we offer i use it a lot when i have variable
income or anything anything outside the ordinary,
(26:41):
just because it's good to have a legitimate second eye on it.
So that's something that we offer for our clients too, is verified approval
letter, which also makes your closings extremely faster.
And then you actually get another letter on top of our pre-approval letter that
it's verified approval letter.
Like it's been by an underwriter and not by me, Eric Marker,
(27:03):
Johnny from Johnny's bank down the road.
So do you guys have anything Anything to add?
Not that I can think of off the top of my head. I think we've covered just about
everything that you need as far as like the pre-approval process leading up
to, hey, I'm gonna put an offer in on a home.
And I have to say, I've only been doing this for a month or two.
(27:26):
And the way that Premier Mortgage Consultants has worked and from what I've
seen in my years of working in the bank.
It's, we do everybody outside the box. Every single deal is individual, as you are, as we all are.
And it's just been amazing to see how hard everybody works here to make the
(27:48):
deal work for the client.
I forgot my new slogan is PMC.
We make lending easy.
I don't know if it's easy, but we'll make it work.
Yeah, it's really not that big of a process. It really isn't.
It um once you've got a few loans under your belt you you've seen it all you
know i've been through every possible not every i've got a new one the other
(28:13):
day i was like i haven't seen that yet,
um but it's really it's not rocket science and a lot of you out there are going
to be the easy pre-approvals and the nice thing is with us and we alluded to
it yesterday is that we do have 49 49, thank you, Mark,
49 different lenders, which means
you get to go shopping for 49 different rates, 49 different products,
(28:35):
whatever it is. We got it all.
So we do the extremely tough deals and we do the extremely easy deals.
So just keep that in mind. If you're a realtor out there or a potential buyer
down the road is that if we can't make it work, I promise you there is not one
person in this world that will. We got it all.
(28:57):
Got it all. All right. Well, great, great chat. Great information.
Nothing to add. So we are going to kick off our next series,
which will be our third episode, which is going to be what are the next steps
after you get pre-approved?
What are the next steps and we will probably have a
(29:19):
guest with us um a realtor and hopefully um we can get that all squared away
so thank you everybody for listening and watching and if you guys have any questions
at all feel free to send us a message and we would love to work with you if
we haven't already thank you for listening to beyond the blueprint.
Music.
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