Get a Loan

You should already have your pre-approval at this point, and you can continue to work with your lender to get your loan.

The first step in obtaining your loan is to gather all of your financial documents. Your lender will ask for your financial records and some of the following:

• Drivers license or other photo ID
• Check for credit report
• Last two tax returns
• W-2 forms for last two years
• Current pay stubs
• Current credit card statements for all credit card accounts
• All bank account numbers and balances
• Last 3 months bank statements
• All open loans with names, addresses, account numbers, balances and monthly payments
• All information on current real estate
• Title of any cars you own (if less than 5 years old)

• Current profit and loss statement, if you are self employed
• Transcript or diploma (if you have been a student in the past 2 years)
• Divorce or legal separation documents
• Sales contract of home you currently own
• Relocation agreement (if you were transferred to the area)
• Bankruptcy files

Most lenders request documentation to verify the information that you provide. Typically they will want to see the originals of each document, however, the lender will let you know if a copy can be substituted.

The lender may also ask personal questions, like whether you are on Social Security disability, if you are retired or if you receive funding from any legal settlements. All of these questions are very common within the loan process.

Be as proactive with your lender as you are with your Realtor®. You may want to keep up to date with the market and check rates online, as interest rates rise and fall almost hourly. In fact, lenders often allow you to pay a fee to lock-in at a certain interest rate for a designated amount of time. If you lock-in, and close within that designated time frame, you are ensured that rate on your mortgage. Again, you don’t want to lock-in too far in advance of your closing date because rate-locks can expire.