re: Home Mortgage Questions

We are going through the process currently. Last time I bought a house was in 2005, and the amount of paperwork and verification they need today compared to 2005 is intense. In 2005 I bought a house worth 3x my income using nothing but a job offer letter. Today, they've asked for everything but a urine sample.

If you can pay 20 percent down, you can avoid PMI, so I would try to do that if you can.

We used a broker, and I have not been impressed, but I am too far down the road to start over. But I think this is just this particular broker, which is upsetting because several people I know recommended the broker.

We got pre-approved by the same broker, which turned out to be completely useless. They pretty much re-underwrote everything again, asked for all new documentation, etc. We purchased less than our pre-approved amount, and still it doesn't matter. Also, apparently, our pre-approval didn't account for required flood insurance, which is stunning to me considering we live in S. Louisiana, and they have used that as the reason we needed to get approved all over again.

Also, the appraisal process is much slower this time around.

You look to be in a good situation, so you should be fine, but just know that banks are a lot more diligent these days.