Buying a Home with Financing? It's time to be BORING.

Buying a home is an exciting time.  New home, new furnishings, new appliances, new plans! 

But STOP!  

Don't DO ANYTHING! 

Now is THE TIME to be BORING.   ......Huh?!  

Yes, that's what we said...be BORING!! 

Once you get your new home under contact.....absolutely, positively, do NOT buy anything or pay anything off.  WHY? 

Because lenders like you to be stable....and boring....yes, it's true!  

We tell all our buyers once we are under contract, DON'T do ANY of the following things:

• DON'T Pay off college loans
• DON'T Pay off credit cards  
• DON'T Pay off car 
• DON'T ...BUY a car.  
• DON'T Pay off collection agency accounts 
• We'll even take it one step further and ask that you not buy anything you don't need above food and gas.  Don't add anything unusual to your credit card.  Yes....that's right...be REALLY boring.  No trips, diamond rings, furs, nothing our of the ordinary.  There's plenty of time for that later....
• Thinking about moving money from one account to another?  DON'T!  Keep it put, otherwise the lender will require a complete paper trail and sourcing of every penny.  Save yourself the aggravation and headache days before closing.  Be boring.  At least for now.
• DON'T open new credit lines (like appliances, furniture, new car)  even if there is deferred payment and 0%, it can really mess with your debt ratios.  Lenders like those ratios to be...well, stable and boring.  

Because that new bedroom set or car could actually cost you your new home!

You see, if you were able to get preapproved by your lender, they know what to expect, and what they will expect to see when underwriting is working your file. Leave well enough alone.

And we've (almost) seen grown men cry because they thought they were doing something RIGHT by paying off their car, eliminating that debt from their ratio.  Immediately after doing this, their score dropped under minimum qualification and we had to wait it out.  In fact, we were very lucky the sellers were willing to hang in there for the 45 days it took the score to correct AND the 30 days after for the loan to process.

And only a couple months ago...can you say "shopping spree"??  A woman bought 4 rooms of furniture for her new home....to be delivered after closing and on "lay-away" but yes...a credit line was opened at 0%.   Even though she had 12 months to pay, she now had thousands of unnecessary dollars that really affected her debt ratio.  You see, it doesn't matter if the payment is delayed, or the interest is zero.  This almost cost her the home she was buying the furniture FOR...

And how about the gentleman last year that bought himself a new car a couple weeks before closing was scheduled??  You guessed it.  No house.  And we're not sure if the wife is speaking to him yet....!  

So...when we tell you to be BORING, we mean only for a while. Get past closing, get your keys.  Then you can shop to your hearts content. Pay off your college loans, pay off your car, go buy your furniture that very afternoon. 

Just be patient.  During financing...please be patient. 

Because you see....?  We really want to help you get into your new home smoothly without a hitch!