Getting a home loan ain't what it used to be...

The owner of our company, Michael Williamson, is buying a Studio City home to live in.  He talked with our office this a.m. on his challenges in getting a home loan.  Mind you, he has gotten home loans 16 times before and says, "I thought I knew everything." Of course, he's putting down a lot of cash and has a very high FICO score too.

But getting a loan ain't as easy as it used to be, says Michael.  It took him an extra 16 days to get loan approval.  The lender kept asking for one piece of paper after another, and one explanation letter after another.  This even involved asking about ONE missed payment from a tenant on a property he owns in Palm Springs!  And this guy is way more qualified than most buyers.

So if you're a home buyer, and your lender asks you for something that doesn't make sense, don't get frustrated, just provide what you can as quickly as you can.  And if you're a home seller, please know that the lender doesn't particularly care about our contractual deadlines and go easy on your home buyers if loan stuff is late -- it truly is out of their hands.

Does applying for a mortgage with more than one lender hurt your FICO score?

One of the reasons that clients give me for NOT getting preapproved by a lender is that they are afraid the inquiry will hurt their credit score.  (Why do you need a credit score in the first place...oh, never mind.)  Here's another article from the LA Times about this very issue. As you'll see, mortgage-related inquiries do not hurt your credit score. If you read nothing else, please read this quote, "The FICO models, Huynh said, ignore all mortgage-related inquiries during the 30 days immediately preceding the computation of the score. All mortgage inquiries during the 45 days preceding your loan application count only as a single inquiry. The same buffer zones cover shopping for auto loans and student loans — but no other forms of credit."  So please call your lenders, okay?