In most cases an appraisal is not needed. The value can be determined by the lender using an electronic evaluation. If an appraisal is needed, some lenders will pay for it, in some cases it is the clients expense. In a case where the appraisal is lower though the lender will calculate the application on the lower amount. You will still get a mortgage but it does change the calculations, so 10% downpayment might now be 8.5% downpayment. Each deal is different. Check with your Broker.

Probation is not a problem if your closing date is after you come off probation. Also some lenders will allow probation if you are in the same field as your last job. Also if you are employed in your field of education that helps as well.

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Okay, so we were supposed to close on our house tomorrow (the 28th). my husband is using his va loan for the 2nd time. he was medically retired at the end of october 2010, and has a 40+ hour a week job within a month after that, & has maintained it ever since. he is 80% disabled. everything was going just fine with the whole process until the underwritter on friday came back & told our loan officer "no, the va won't approve". that didn't sound right to us or our loan officer. so she did some digging & found out that the va said no such thing, and that it was actually the underwritter who had the issue with my husband. the underwritter claimed that my husband has not held his new job long enough according to century 21's standards (which they say is anywhere between 6 months to a year). but the va said that they had no problem with that, & that they take each individual person's situation into consideration because no two are the same. [i should also mention that with the 1st va loan we had, we had also gone thru century 21 for that one, and that we had never missed a payment & were always on time with our payments.] this underwritter would not budge on his decision after our loan officer practially begged & pleaded with him all day friday. so our loan officer took action and asked if we would be comfortable with switching lenders (which we are). so she {our loan officer} contacted another lender whom she also does business with, and she faxed over all of our paper work to the new lender late friday afternoon. they (the new lender) looked everything over thuroughly and said that they would lend to us. so basically, from what our loan officer that we've been working with all along up until this point has told us, that because we've already done all that major paperwork, inspections, appraisal - all of that - that it's pretty much now just how quickly they can change over everything to this new lender. she said that they seller of the house we are buying would like to have everything taken care of and done by thursday of this coming week {which would be march 3rd}. so i guess all in all here, my question is, has anyone ever experienced anything like this before, and is it possible to switch lenders like this and still be able to close fairly quickly here? like i said, we've already done all of the major stuff that we did earlier on in the past 30 days, and our loan officer that we've had all along up to this point said that any fees that may come up with switching lenders that she will have them take that out of her 'bank' or 'fund [i believe is what she called it]. she feels that the underwritter that turned us down at the last minute is discriminating against my husband because he is a disabled veteran, and because he hasn't had a job for more than 6 months to a year (even tho he's only been a civilian for 4 months and has held this job he has no for 3 months of those 4 months). *** i did forget to include that the seller did agree to an extension, he's already said that he wants to sell this house to us [he's a re-habber].***

With new laws that were put in place about a year ago you couldn't close that soon even if everything is in place. From the time the new lender discloses & gets paperwork to you, you cannot close until the 8th day. Sunday doesn't count as one of those days. The certificate of eligibility is probably the only form the old lender has that can be used. Possibly the Indebtedness form, too, but that will be up to the lender. The old mortgage company does not own the appraisal so you are good there. It is available to new lender online. I still don't understand why people use a real estate agency's mortgage company to make the largest purchase of their life . They will probably soon be a thing of the past with new changes coming about. That is a good thing. It could be perceived as a conflict of interest. VA only guarantees the loan, they do not purchase the loan. Therefore it is not up to VA to say what is OK with them. It is up to the investor that will purchase the loan to say what they will accept. This particular underwriter knew what the investor would accept & your scenario wasn't it. Your agent was out of line saying she thinks your husband is being discriminated against. The other odd thing about that is that it is her company's affiliate she is bad mouthing. I rest my case.

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I have a loan officer who is guaranteeing that i can get a 5% down (or 95% ltv) loan in a zip code that is a declining market. four other lenders are saying that in my zip code, mortgage insurance companies will not allow anything less then 10% down. i even confirmed this on 3 of the larger mortgage insurance's websites. however, i am going to go out on a limb and send my signed contracts to this lender who is guaranteeing me 5% down. because this will be a huge savings if i don't have to come up with 10%. if it turns out that the 4 other lenders were right and this lender calls me back after i sent him my contracts and states that he made a mistake and i owe 10% down payment instead of 5% down payment 1) do i owe him anything (i.e. appraisal costs, processing fees, etc.) and 2) can i switch lenders before closing?

Be prepared to put up 10% is your best bet. 3 outta' 4 are rarely wrong

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Is it possible to change lenders when you are very close to closing? i have a loan with my current loan agent who has done nothing on my loan so far and is now asking me to pay an additional $30,000 down payment. she initially told me that i could even do it without anything down but i am planning on putting $60,000 down for a $308,150 loan at 5.125% (calhfa). now she is coming back and saying it won’t be enough since the ratio would be too high, so she is asking me to put down $30,000 more. i even told her to remove the property taxes and i can pay that separately but she said due to cal hfa rules, they have to include it. also, i have excellent credit – 800. i am wondering if i am getting ripped off here and if it is too late to switch mortgage brokers, i have my final walk through on my new unit on thursday and they said i can close right away. would it be in my best interest to find a new loan agent at this point?

If you can afford the extra time it takes to switch your loan from lender to lender by all means see whats out there! Don't ever feel pressured into a closing. However time is of the essence so hurry. What exactly are you trying to do? I do loans in California and can have an answer for you regarding your loan within minutes. Email me so we can get started. I recommend everyone get a second opinion on home loans regardless. this way you have explored your options.

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We went with a mortgage broker first and signed the intial paperwork, but not closing papers from the lender, we found out we had to pay pmi on the house, so we asked our bank if they could do a mortgage for us with no pmi or closing costs. how much can the mortgage company charge us if we went with the bank instead? we paid for the appraisal report already.

nothing, you just wasted the broker's time. brokers are on commission so if you dont get the loan through them, they dont get paid. even if you hadn't paid for the appraisal, most brokers won't hold you to paying anyway. some will take a post-dated check for the appraisal in case you do what you did or they will make you pay a processing fee up front.

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I purchase a condo the beach. we were not notified until closing that our lender switched out loan to an adjustable mortgage with a balloon payment. we had already payed escrows and had no idea of what had taken place. are there any legal remedies for this behavior by lender and broker?

Lender has to honor original contract unless a clause is inserted. Check your original. Compare differences and see what the pros/cons are. Keep the info to yourself. Contact the lender and the MAIN loan processor and demand a reason and/or resolution.

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I am trying to purchase a house, and my loan lender is lying and not doing his job to proceed to closing. i try to call him and no response or phone call back from him. i wrote him a email asking him what is going on, and he pretty much said i call him and his processor to much. can i switch loan lenders? or am i to far into the deal?

First you need to find how far into the loan you are. Have you already turned in all of your required papers? Including the ones the lender requested after loan submission? Yes? Call and ask for the Branch Manager and have them take over the loan. No? Call and ask for your loan package to be ready at a time that you can pick it up, 24hrs notice should be plenty of time. If you are going FHA then that will add a twist to the deal. You will need to have them release the FHA case number to the new lender . Again make sure to ask the Branch Manager to do this and not the Loan Officer. I hope this is helpful.

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I have had too many delays with the current mortgage broker i am working with, so i looked for another broker as backup. they are offering a lower interest rate and have pre-approved me-how do i tell the first one that i am going with the other lender?

Tell him there were too many delays & you have found someone who will give you good service. Don't back down.

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We have been looking at a home. we got approved for a fha loan. we knew through them we'd only have to pay 3% downpayment and zero closing costs. well, a bit later in the negotiation process, the builder in question convinced us to switch to their lender. they assured us that the conditions would be the same, but that the deal would get closed faster and with "less hassle." so naturally, under the impression (having been told so) that there would be no closing costs, we switched lenders. now we're being asked for roughly 2.5% of the houses cost more in closing costs. also our "earnest money" was roughly 3% of the house and we were told that would go towards the downpayment. does this void our contract since we were told there would be no closing costs? and do we have grounds for a lawsuit?

You definitely have grounds for a lawsuit. It's a SCAM for the builder to arrange financing (line Beazer Homes whose CEO is being investigated by the Fed's). Court is more sympathetic to unsuspecting borrowers than loan brokers and unethical lenders. Your deal with FHA appeared ideal. I still can't understand why you had changed your mind and went with builder recommended lenders. Find a way to detach yourself from these people now. Otherwise, you would continue to have problems in the future. You would never know what else they are going to come up to surprise you. FHA is backed by government and it's legit. Go back to the original loan arrangement if you can.

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Thank you for all the one that respond. we were approved, contractor bid approved, escrow in place, appraisal done and it came lower for what the house worth, we wanted to cancel the owner agreed to reduce the price, we continue on, then ready for closing, lender said the appraisal was wrong it need to be revised, extension, reduction of the price, reduction on repairs, extension,problem with the title, extension, no respond from the lender what else is needed, extension, revised of the appraisal with new comps, extension, lender didn't need a revised needed new appraisal, extension. we tried to switch lenders since there is still until now a reason why we have not close followed agent advise this time we will close if you switch lenders it would take more time. after 5 month of not knowing the reason why ,we went to a bank which we don't have any problems getting a loan, our agent send another extension together with a cancellation why he did that? i think we choose wrong lender & wrong agent. so understandable the owner wants to cancel trying to get my deposit. we don't want to cancel so we want to switch lenders they revised our loan also they don't know why we didn't close. so maybe a litigation lawyer can help us to not loose our deposit. is not our fault is not the owners fault, it is the lender that is obvious doesn't know how the transaction works.

Whether or NOT you think this is your fault, the seller has simply run out of patience with your endless delays and extensions. Understand that you signed a contract to close by a specific date. You have breached that contract, and have been given several extensions in hopes that you can get it done. The seller is not willing to give you any more extensions. Whether or not this is the fault of the lender involved, the onus to perform the contract is on YOU. No attorney will successfully argue this to your success. It is basic contract law. Understand that 'fault' has not one thing to do with contractual obligations. You seem to think that this somehow can work in your favor. It does NOT.