Buying a Home in St. Louis, MO
By: Denise Grab
If you are planning on purchasing a home, I would start asking people you know and trust for referrals, especially for a Realtor ®. I am sure no matter what, you will hear either how awesome the experience was, or how horrific the selling and buying process was.
By asking people you trust, it will help you to decide who is going to provide you with the best options and service for your scenario specifically. You want to make sure that you are going to get as much equity from your home as you can, while covering their fees, to use as a down payment on your next home. Just a reminder, if this is your first home purchase, having an agent represent you in the buying process is COMPLETELY FREE and STRONGLY RECOMMENDED!
I know I started off the article about selecting a realtor first, and that was just to get your attention, but the real person that you should contact first, is your loan officer here at First Integrity Mortgage Services. We, at First Integrity Mortgage Services in St. Louis, always provide our customers with options for buying their first or forever home. It is imperative that we are all on the same page concerning a monthly budget and payment. Most of the time, you will be able to qualify for a monthly payment that is higher than what you think you can afford. It is our job to make sure that you are fully prepared, financially, so that when you are house hunting, you are fully prepared for what is ahead in the loan process and know what to expect on closing day. After all, even if you are borrowing 100% of the purchase price or putting 20% down on your first home, your money matters and we want to make sure that you are familiar with every step of the process.
Step one in the qualifying process will be to complete a loan application on our secure website. You will be asked to provide the basic information, such as your Name, Birthday, SSN, 2 Years Employment history and some simple yes or no questions. Nothing too complicated. From this, your First Integrity loan officer will run your credit and ask you for documentation to verify the information that you submitted on your application. This documentation includes 30 days' most recent pay stubs, two years' most recent tax returns and W2’s and 2 months' most recent bank statements. Is this all the information we are going to need? I wish, but it will be a great start and will put us on track to a solid pre-approval.
At First Integrity Mortgage Services in St. Louis, we issue a true pre-approval letter, not a pre-qualification letter. The difference between the two is simple. Approval means that your documents have actually been reviewed vs. qualification is that your lender provides a letter to you based on the information that you inputted on the application. Not that we don’t trust what you submitted, investors have several overlays on employment and income that we want to make sure we have all squared away before you list your home or put that offer in on your first home. The last thing you want to hear is that your loan is declined after you have sold your home and have spent several hundreds of dollars on inspections. A solid pre-approval will also make the loan process faster!
Generally, we can close a loan in as little as 3 weeks but can vary depending on the loan scenario.
Buying a home is stressful, but if you have the right team to guide you through as we do at First Integrity Mortgage, it will be a little more bearable! Call us today FIRST to get PRE-APPROVED for your home search and we will be sure to set you down the right path. Check out our Google reviews! They are a true testament to our 5-STAR customer service!
For questions, comments, or concerns, please contact, me, Denise Grab at 314-220-9620 or dgrab@firstintegity.com, NMLS# 738524. I look forward to hearing from you!