Bidding for a new home can get pretty fierce in today's market.  Here are three potential solutions to avoid getting outbid on your new home:

1. Turn in your loan paperwork BEFORE you place an offer. 
   In many cases, you are bidding against cash buyers who don't need to wait for financing approvals.  Look at it this way:  if you were the seller, would you prefer to do business with a buyer who needs to wait for financing approvals or a cash buyer who can close the deal quickly?  With that in mind, it's important to be proactive and provide your mortgage lender with things like your source of down payment funds, your asset documentation, your credit report, and your income documentation.  This way, you'll be in a better position to close the deal quickly and compete with those cash buyers.
2. Pay cash, but do it right. 
   Keep in mind that you only have 90 days after closing to place a mortgage on a property that you bought with cash if you want to secure your tax deduction.  (For more info, see my article entitled, 90 Day Rule for Cash Buyers.)  In order to get that loan approval after closing, you'll need to document the source of funds that you used for your cash purchase.  Talk to me for more details so that you can avoid problems down the road.
3. Write your offer correctly.  
   Mortgage lenders are implementing some pretty significant changes this year to the legal requirements for mortgage paperwork as part of the Dodd-Frank Act. When real estate agents and loan officers aren't familiar with some of these changes, it causes unnecessary delays in the loan process. That's why it's important to work with someone like myself who keeps up to date on all the new requirements. I can work with your real estate agent to make sure you write your offer correctly in the beginning so that you won't have to redo the paperwork and delay the closing.

Contact me so that we can further explore any/all of these ideas together!

Your timely payment history has a 35% impact on your credit score. Paying debt on time and in full has a positive impact. Late payments, judgments, charge-offs, collection accounts, and bankruptcies have a negative impact. If you have had any bankruptcies within the last 7 years, it will seriously affect your ability to borrow or establish new credit accounts.  If you have had any judgments within the last several years, it is very important that you pay off the judgment and get a "satisfaction of judgment" from the court. Any unsatisfied or recent judgments will make a bad dent in your credit scores and adversely affect your ability to borrow. Usually, judgments and liens must be paid prior to the closing.

Timely mortgage payments are weighted heavily by the scoring systems and are one of the most vital requirements that lenders look for when evaluating your credit history. Many times, a single late mortgage payment within the last 12 months can hold up your file or make a big difference in your interest rate and loan terms. Your payment history on other debts (car payments, credit cards, etc.) is also given a lot of weight.

The credit scoring systems evaluate how many late payments you have had and whether they were 30, 60 or 90 days late. The worst situation is if you are currently in default. Additionally, the systems look at whether the late payments were consecutive. If you only have one or two minor late payments on your report with no other derogatory marks, your score will not be terribly affected, but you will have a tough time getting over the critical 700 level.  Here are four practical steps that you can implement:

• Make all your payments on time.
• Past dues on any account will destroy your score - bring your delinquent accounts current immediately.
• Pay your bills before they go to a collection agency.
• Regularly check your credit report for accuracy and make sure that disputed bills are not negatively affecting your scores.

Let me know if you have any questions or if I can help in any way!