What Not To Do When Applying for a Mortgage

• Stop Paying Your Bills on Time
  It's very important to continue to pay your bills on time. A last minute credit check can kill your loan request due to a missed payment.
• Leave Your Employment
  Many lenders will complete a "day of the closing" verification of employment. Lose your job and you could lose your loan.
• Apply for Other Credit
  While your loan is in process, do not apply for other loans. Doing so can negatively impact your credit score and debt to income ratio and could kill your loan request.
• Co-Sign for a Loan
  This is something that you shouldn't do at anytime if you can avoid it. When you co-sign for a loan, you are obligated to repay that loan if the person you signed for cannot. This too can negatively effect your credit score and debt to income ratio, thus putting YOUR loan in jeopardy. It is important to realize, that by co-signing for a loan, you no longer directly control your credit history and score. A late payment by the person co-signed for will show up on your credit report and lower your credit score. The cosigned loan is also included in determining your total obligations ratio. Simply don't do it.

In short, don't do anything that makes you more of a credit risk. Taking on more debt, leaving your job and missing payments can cause you to lose your mortgage at the very last minute. If you need to do anything on our Don't Do list, discuss it with us in the early phases of the process. Together we can come up with the proper strategy for your circumstances.