Looking for a home can be a pretty fun experience most times. You are looking at homes, deciding where you would like to like and the features of the home that you would like to live in. This tends to be people’s favorite part of the home buying experience. Where a REALTOR and other professional help comes in is for the parts that are not as easy, are more stressful, or simply where guidance is needed. This is where having an expert on your side can save you time, money and stress. Big time.
Obtaining a mortgage is typically less fun at best and is often a stressful part of the real estate purchase process. While there are a lot of things that go into making the loan process smooth and as stress free as possible, here are 5 things provided by a mortgage broker in Fort McMurray, Grand Prairie and Red Deer to look for that will help the most. They are some of the most important characteristics that separate those that will provide a superior experience from those that will not.
-
- Closed transactions – Before choosing a person to work with, it is not only permissable, but encouraged to ask them how many transactions they have done this year, in the last 3 years and in the last 10 years. There is NO substitute for the experience that comes from actually doing it. If you were going in for surgery, you would totally be justified in asking the surgeon how many of these operations he or she had performed. This is no different.
- Honesty – It is important to make sure that the lender is specific and honest about any fees, paperwork needed and other items that may affect your transaction. Your REALTOR can help with this and I have seen a number of cases where a REALTOR was able to help guide people to a couple or three lenders who all had the level of honesty and character to help someone in a difficult position to buy a home.
- Transparency – This is a little bit different that just being honest. This is having a lender who will open up to you about potential pitfalls and help you avoid them. This is the lender who will tell you what you need to know even if you do not know what to ask.
- Friendliness – This person (your loan officer) will be able to see a lot of personal information about you. This can be disconcerting to some. Having someone who is friendly and kind can make this process much easier and stress free. At times when you feel like you are being asked for a lot of documentation about seemingly everything that you have done, a friendly caring voice on the other end of the line goes a long way.
- Accuracy and Timeliness – A mortgage broker or lender or loan officer will be preparing paperwork for the underwriting department (somewhere) to approve your loan. You want their paperwork, organization, accuracy and timeliness skills to be top notch. You want nothing extra to be an obstacle. Sometimes home mortgages do have REAL obstacles, you do not want one of them to be an unneccessary one. REALTORS can often be a great guide in this regard. They know which people have a proven track record that comes with top notch skills.
These are my 5 top things to look for. There are many others, but the key in all of the above is to choose someone that you can trust. Finding the RIGHT mortgage professional is important. It will reduce the home buying stress to the minimum possible amount and will make the process as enjoyable as possible.