Documents Required For A Mortgage Loan: 5 Tips for Success with Mortgage Loan Documents
- Ivan Vranjes
- May 6, 2022
- 4 min read
Do you wanna avoid heartache? Do you wanna avoid disappointment? Do you wanna avoid, heaven forbid, loan denial? Avoid the late closing dates, avoid the loan denial. Five easy steps we're gonna cover today.
Step number one, you are a team with your loan officer. You guys need to work together. Be accurate with them. Be detailed with them. Communicate clearly with them. Be respectful with them, please. They are trying to get you through the end and they're only asking for the items that they need. So step number one is don't be argumentative. Be nice, be respectful and work together with that loan officer, because believe me, they want to get you to that closing just as bad as you wanna get there.
Tip number two, what are some of the basic documents you're gonna need? Photo ID, most recent four paycheck stubs, most recent two months bank statements, most recent two years W-2's. That's typically the short list, the quick and easy list, but not all of you are gonna fit into that box. So the tips on that short list are, with your driver's license, if it is unexpired, you only need to copy the front, but if it is expired and there's an extension sticker on the back, then you've got a copy the front and back.
They're looking to match that up with your application to make sure everything matches. When's the expiration date? When's the issue date? Those types of things. When it comes to the paycheck stubs sometimes as little as two. A lot of times, as many as four that you're gonna need. Make sure you fax, upload or scan them. Pictures make it very difficult by the time we try to blow them up, to try to print it. Plus when people take pictures, they seem to cut it off, show you the table. It is a mess. So please just don't even do that if you can avoid it. Your loan officer is basically your coach trying to get you through that entire marathon. So they are there for you.
They're your advocate. They're there to help. And they're there to explain.
Some of the other basic documents you're gonna need, and we're still on step two here, guys, but some of the other basic documentation that you're gonna need, sometimes it can also be tax returns, sometimes one year and sometimes two. Any document that we talk about ever, it is the most recent. Let me repeat, the most recent. Can't tell you how many times I'll ask somebody for their most recent bank statements or 401(k) statements. They send me something couple of months old. You could have liquidated that by now, you could have spent all the money by now.
Everything needs to be the most recent statement for all of these things that we're actually talking about. So even with the tax returns, make sure you include every single page, every single schedule.
Tip number three, why do you need these basic documents? Well guys, they're lending you tons and tons of money and they need to verify that everything is true. That it's valid, that it's not fraudulent and that you can actually, or do actually have the ability to repay the loan.
And how else are they gonna figure that out if we're not looking at documentation to prove that?
Number four, other potential documents that you might need. Sometimes if you're a non-resident alien or non-permanent alien you might need a Green Card. Sometimes if you're self-employed versus W-2, you may need one or two years tax returns and 12 or 24 months of bank statements. Sometimes with certain loan programs, you may give us one bank statement and it shows a transfer from another bank statement. So, then we might be led to that bank statement and need a copy of that as well.
Sometimes we might be looking at your bank statement and there's some kind of overdraft and with some programs that could be an instant loan denial. So let's assume that it's not a program where it's an instant loan denial. Other documents we might need is proof that you maybe had overdraft protection or you didn't, we might need the bank statement from the month that it went overdraft so we can see what caused the overdraft and how much money you had in there at that time. Sometimes we might need your transcripts from school to help cover your history. Sometimes we might need your certificate from your trade school. So those are some different things and some other potential documents that might be needed, or number four, for our video today.
Tip number five, and you're gonna hear me saying this a lot because I'm seeing it so much. Screenshots are a no, no. Why? Well, they might not show your name. They might not show your account number. They might not show the name of the bank. They might show a snapshot of the balances, but not every page of the bank statement. They might show a couple of transactions, but not all the transactions. And so all of those things go into what we need to see on the bank statement as an example. Sometimes people will send a screenshot of their payroll when they go to log in. We're not looking for a screenshot. We're looking for something that shows your name, your address, so that we can cross reference it, that you do make $26 an hour if that's what you said, that you are on track to make $80,000 this year, if that's what you said.
So that's why screenshots are a big no no these days and people keep using them. So if you wanna save yourself some headaches do not do that. For your free download today, I'm gonna give you a link to the long form documents checklist. That's gonna be the longest form that should cover the majority of all the possible documents you might need for your mortgage, whether you're self employed, W-2, 1099, that list is really gonna help you figure out what you can expect.
Download our Home Buying Checklist for FREE
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