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What You’ll Need to Apply For a Home Loan

December 18, 2017

Sometimes it’s hard to know where to start when considering buying a home. Applying and gathering the proper documents needed can seem a little daunting at first but we’re dedicated to making the process as smooth and streamlined as possible. Our easy online application takes a lot of the hassle out of applying for a home loan, but to make sure everything is in order, consult the list below before you begin.

Information We’ll Ask For

  • Full name, along with social security number, birth date, and phone number
  • Marital status and number of dependents and their ages
  • Residence history
    • If you’re a renter we’ll need your current rental payment as well as previous rental payment (going back for at least two years)
    • If you’re a homeowner already we’ll ask you for all mortgage, insurance, and tax information for all of the properties you own
  • Employment history for at least two years including company name, address, phone number, and job title
  • Income history for at least two years. This includes any commissions, bonuses, or self-employed income
  • Account balances of all checking, savings, investment and retirement accounts
  • Debt payments and balances for credit cards, mortgages, student loans, car loans, alimony, child support, or any other debt obligations
  • Whether you’ve had any bankruptcies or foreclosures in the past seven years, as well as any lawsuits you’re party to and any loans you co-sign on
  • Whether or not any part of your down payment will be borrowed

Documents We’ll Ask For

Of course every loan is different, but the following documents are what we most commonly ask for
  • Written confirmation/Verbal confirmation authorizing us to run your credit report
  • Letters of explanation for credit inquiries, past addresses, and derogatory information on your credit report
  • If any tax liens or other derogatory items on your credit report need further explanation, we’ll ask you to provide full documentation for each derogatory instance
  • Discharge papers for any bankruptcies you’ve had in the past seven years
  • If you’re a renter with a private landlord, we’ll ask you to provide 12 months of canceled rent checks or 12 months of bank statements showing your rent checks cleared on time. If you rent with an institutional landlord, we can sometimes get them to complete a form to confirm your on-time payments instead of your cancelled checks or bank statements
  • If you’re keeping your existing home and renting it out, we’ll ask you to provide a lease agreement and proof that the first month’s rent has been deposited into your bank account
  • If you’re planning on selling your existing home, we’ll ask you to provide a listing agreement. Your existing home will also need to close before your new home can close
  • 30 days (at least) of pay stubs
  • w2 forms for all jobs worked in the last 2 years
  • All pages of the past 2 years of personal federal tax returns
  • If you’re self-employed or more than a 20% owner in a company, we’ll ask you for all pages of business federal tax returns for the past 2 years
    • If you’re self-employed or more than a 20% owner in a company, we’ll also ask you for a year-to-date profit and loss statement for the business
  • Income from rental properties if that income is on your tax returns. If rental income is on your tax returns yet because the rental property is new, we may accept the income if your rental property down payment was 30% or greater
  • If you’re divorce and either receiving or paying child support or alimony, we’ll ask you for a divorce decree. This income typically must be scheduled for at least 3 years more from the time your loan closes
  • 2 months of statements for all checking, savings, investment and retirements accounts. We ask that your provide every page of these statements, even if it says “intentionally left blank” or you think there’s no pertinent information on certain pages
  • If you move money between accounts, you’ll be asked to provide all accounts even if you’re only using one account for your down payment. We ask this because we’ll look through 2 months of full account statements to verify any large deposits or withdrawals
  • If you are receiving any gift funds, you’ll need to sign (both the donor and receiver) a gift letter that we provide. This gift letter verifies the gift is not a loan.  We’ll also ask for the donors account information so that we can confirm the donor’s ability to gift.
  If you have any questions about what information you’ll need, please don’t hesitate to contact us. If you’re ready to start gathering documents, download our Mortgage Application Document Checklist

Categories: Closing on a Home, First-time homebuyers, Home Loan Information, Loans

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