A scary but good rant by another contributor at Rain City Guide can be found at this link. It’s a cautionary tale to buyers that they really need to do their homework about financing BEFORE buying a home. There are also several lessons I can put into a few points:
1. If you are going to use a combination real estate agent and loan officer – check out their track record in both areas of business.
2. Realize there is some conflict of interest in an agent that is also a loan officer – they will be more hard pressed for you to close a deal because of the multiple sources of income you provide to them.
3. Escrow companies are supposed to be arm’s length neutral third party vendors and cannot give you advice. Most people don’t understand the forms that show up in the mail initially from an escrow office and don’t realize that they’re telling you up front that they can’t give you advice during the transaction.
4. Ask your agent and/or if they’ll be showing up to your closing. We’ve found that about 50% of all closings have something come up that requires phone calls and we show up to make those calls while the signing appointment is in process. This helps to alleviate last minute issues, hiccups, and stress for our clients.
5. There are lots of resources out there to learn about the financing process. If you have questions you can ask your agent, lender, and others. If you only have one source of information you should branch out and ask more people for help.
6. Consider letting your agent review your Good Faith Estimate (GFE) and ask if they have any questions to suggest for your lender. We do this regularly and many lenders are caught off guard when a seemingly novice new client suddenly calls with pointed questions. Having an extra set of eyes reading a GFE helps to find if any “junk fees” might be lurking in the paperwork and cost of the loan.
