Applying for a home mortgage

The application process that you go through to obtain a home mortgage is highly personal, detailed, and time-consuming. To complete the process successfully, you will need to fill out considerable paperwork, provide many documents, and remain patient while the lender sorts through and analyzes this information.

Your potential lender will wants to know as much about you as possible as they consider whether to finance your home mortgage. Knowledge related to your finances (past and present) is most important to them because it helps predict the likelihood of your repayment. For that reason, you must be willing to share intimate financial details with your potential lender, including your salary, your debt history, payment records, savings, equity, and so forth.

More importantly, you must provide documents that verify the information you provide in your application. A lender cannot be sure that you make, say, $50,000 a year just because you say so. As proof, they will request a copy of a paycheck or other records that verify your annual income.

Mortgage lenders will closely examine your credit report to learn about your history of debt and your success in paying it off. Lenders like to see that you have borrowed money in the past, and then paid it back according to a schedule. If you have been late with payments to another creditor, your lender might give you a higher interest rate or deny your application.

As you assemble and submit the required paperwork, be sure to keep copies of your application and any supplementary documentation. Careful record keeping is an important aspect of any successful mortgage.