Please add sections to this wiki with useful information about the process, so that people don't have to ask the same questions over and over, or scan the whole thread for answers!
Notary and closing
Here is what you can expect or ask for from my experience:
1. New pen for signing wiped thoroughly
2. Pen stays with you after signing
3. Only material they will touch would be your ID
4. ID would be wiped and returned back
5. Can expect gloves to be worn
6. Signing can happen in your front yard or in your garage
7. If you have a Costco table then you can sit on either sides to maintain distancing
8. Masks might be recommended given new guidelines
9. Plus discuss with the notary!!
expiredGreenworld123 posted Dec 08, 2019 02:27 PM
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expiredGreenworld123 posted Dec 08, 2019 02:27 PM
Amex offer: $2,500 statement credit for home refinance Better.com
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Too many people HURT themselves by not shopping, or needlessly worrying about hard credit checks, or giving the lender enough information to get a VALID estimate.
Too many people HURT themselves by not shopping, or needlessly worrying about hard credit checks, or giving the lender enough information to get a VALID estimate.
Basically 8-10 years ago lenders used to charge an upfront Credit Report Fee or an Application Fee which it seems like most of these guys are no longer doing it. I think the credit report running is replacing those other fees which I think is fair enough.
Shahhere
Or would it be better to not close right away and sit on an approved mortgage in the hopes that you can send a better competing offer (or use their float down) over the next few weeks? I imagine they won't let a full approval sit forever, but I'm sure you can delay it a few weeks.
Or would it be better to not close right away and sit on an approved mortgage in the hopes that you can send a better competing offer (or use their float down) over the next few weeks? I imagine they won't let a full approval sit forever, but I'm sure you can delay it a few weeks.
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Closed on 4th May. Received credit 4th July
Or would it be better to not close right away and sit on an approved mortgage in the hopes that you can send a better competing offer (or use their float down) over the next few weeks? I imagine they won't let a full approval sit forever, but I'm sure you can delay it a few weeks.
As to doing it again... I thought I saw a form in the documents about not doing a refi within so many months. But, I can not find the full document file now.
And guess what, if my "true" score is worst than what I know of then I can't blame lenders for that.
My point is, as a smart shopper one needs to have fairly good idea of rates before they shop. At the end of the day you might $20-30 up or down anyway if you are not locking on the day you are getting estimates so what good is credit check with every lender ?
And guess what, if my "true" score is worst than what I know of then I can't blame lenders for that.
My point is, as a smart shopper one needs to have fairly good idea of rates before they shop. At the end of the day you might $20-30 up or down anyway if you are not locking on the day you are getting estimates so what good is credit check with every lender ?
At the end of the day, I just don't see why it matters. Nobody should be window shopping a mortgage. Publicly available rates give more than enough information to know whether it's time to be serious about buying or refinancing, and if you are serious, you will have to do at least 1 hard inquiry. Given that 1 hard inquiry has the exact same effect as 20 hard inquiries, there's really no downside to just doing the credit check. Unless you're just paranoid about security or something. I would say the only time to be worried about a credit check is if you're on the fence about whether you'll be approved for a loan at all. But for that, there's plenty of lenders that can do a pre-qualification with a soft check, so impact.
At the end of the day, I just don't see why it matters. Nobody should be window shopping a mortgage. Publicly available rates give more than enough information to know whether it's time to be serious about buying or refinancing, and if you are serious, you will have to do at least 1 hard inquiry. Given that 1 hard inquiry has the exact same effect as 20 hard inquiries, there's really no downside to just doing the credit check. Unless you're just paranoid about security or something. I would say the only time to be worried about a credit check is if you're on the fence about whether you'll be approved for a loan at all. But for that, there's plenty of lenders that can do a pre-qualification with a soft check, so impact.
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For me, not just blindly going with the lender will save me about $40K over the life of the loan. I'll spend a little more cash now, but will get huge savings overall. And this is a relatively small mortgage. A quarter point rate difference can make a huge impact on something like a jumbo loan. So it's absolutely worth shopping around, and worrying about credit inquiries is totally silly. With everything being online, it only took me a couple hours to shop around. I filled out applications one night before I went to bed, and started receiving calls the next day.
The only regret I have is that I didn't wait until getting the quotes from the credit unions before I asked Better for a price match. They granted the first match, but denied when I asked them again, likely because they knew they had already fulfilled the terms of their guarantee. Other people here were able to get great rates from Better by giving them a great rate to match in the first place. Lesson learned.
As a side note, shopping around also lets you learn which lenders are actually good to deal with. My builder's lender refused to price match, and acted like I was the stupid one for walking away from $10K in closing costs being paid (mind you, half of that is made up fees just so they can say they gave a huge discount). I wasn't happy with that loan officer from the start, but her reaction to me shopping around cemented my opinion about her being a totally awful person to work with. I'm sure she's accustomed to preying on people who don't bother shopping around. The guy at PenFed was super communicative at first, and I went as far as locking the rate and having him send me the paperwork to sign. At the the same time, UFCU was also sending me their paperwork, and I ultimately decided to go with them, so I never signed the paperwork with PenFed. I have yet to receive a call or email about that from them. If they can't bother following up on an almost-done application, I'm not super confident they would be good to work with through closing. I have a few more days to go before closing, so I hope I'm not jinxing it, but so far I'm happy with the lender I chose.
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