Every lender is different. Provident Funding is unique since it provides very competitive rates and has strict underwriting requirements. Here are the steps.
1. File review：Lender will send you an email from NoReply@myloanzone.com. You can click the link to go to https://www.myloanzone.com/ to sign some docs electronically. You need to type your SSN on the web site. Your Loan Officer (LO) will also send some docs for signing. Note that for the Property Characteristics Disclosure，Choose I/We do not in most cases
2. Underwriting：Lender will have some conditions/TODO items during underwriting. You can upload the required docs directly or send the docs to LO. You just need to look at the Borrower section and the Broker section.
One doc is called Incomplete Credit Application. It is a reminder and you can ignore it.
Verification of employment: you can use a coworker’s email address. Refer to Step #5.
Letter of explanation: no template needed. Just write a simple doc, save it as a pdf and sign it electronically or by hand
3. Closing Disclosure: Lender will send the Closing Disclosure after your loan is CTC (cleared to close). You can go to the portal to sign electronically. If there is a non borrowing spouse, the spouse needs to print the page as below, hand-sign it with the date your sign on the portal and then scan it back to your LO.
4. Signing: you need to bring your green card or I-797 with current visa if you are not a US citizen. There are two notes and not every notary knows about that.
Noe #1： NOTICE OF RIGHT TO CANCEL: do not forget to initial the highlighted dates
Note #2： ALIEN STATUS ID CERTIFICATION: Option 1 is for green card holders. Option 3 is for I-797 with visa
5. Funding review：Lender will do VOE (verification of employment). It will ask for Manager/HR’s email address. Lender does not accept the third party web sites like theworknumber.com, inverify.net, truework.com because those websites refresh the data monthly. Suggest using a coworker/a friend’s email address which needs to be your company domain. The questions asked by the lender are very simple. e.g. is the borrower still working? Replying to the email takes literally a couple of minutes.
First, congrats on working with a trustable and professional loan officer (LO)! The loan process might take 30 to 60 days. Here are the steps. Please feel free to contact your LO if you have any questions.
1. Prepare documents：LO will send the document list to your email address. Normally you can get all the docs ready by spending a couple of hours of focus time although it may take a couple of days.
2. Build your loan file and lock rate：LO will pull your credit and use your docs to build a loan file. LO may ask you additional questions or docs.
Once the loan file is done, LO will send it to the lender with the best rates for your case. Then the rate can be locked. Once the rate is locked, it can not be changed. There might be a little penalty for some lenders if the rate is locked and you decide to back out.
To improve the efficiency and customer experience, LO will pay for the credit report fee instead of asking for your credit card info. The fee will be paid at closing by you or you can paypal/zelle the fee to LO outside closing.
Please do not open new credit lines (e.g open a new credit card, buy a new car), avoid large deposits, keep your account clean and maintain enough balance.
3. Sign initial docs：Lender will send you some docs for e-sign。Most the docs are disclosures . The most important doc is the Loan Estimate(LE) and there are many numbers in it. Your LO will explain every number to you if you like. Lender may mail the hard copy of the docs to your home and you can ignore it. If the lender is Provident Funding, please readProvident Funding
4.1 File Review: Lender will review your file and may ask for additional docs
if appraisal can not be waived, an appraisal will be required and the fee will need to be paid before closing. To improve efficiency and customer experience, , LO will pay for the appraisal fee instead of asking for your credit card info. The fee will be paid by you at closing or you can paypal/zelle the fee to LO outside closing.
If it is a condo(some townhouses are condos legally), you need to get the signed HOA questionnaire and the master insurance policy from your HOA. To avoid a delay, please contact your HOA company ASAP. There might be a charge of $100 to $400.
4.2. Title and Escrow: Chicago Title will be your title and escrow company. The contacts are Lachmi Murjani (Lachmi.Murjani@ctt.com, Escrow Assistant) or Jun Lu (Jun.Lu@ctt.com, Escrow Officer). Escrow will send you an email which contains a few files. One of them is the prelim title and the sender is Chicago Title Eastside Title Unit via smartview – svo@smartviewonline.net. You can disregard the email. Escrow will send another email and the sender is noreply@inhere.com asking filling out a questionnaire. The email might go into the spam folder. Here is some reference for filling out the form.
Power of attorney: Normally select NO unless you can’t sign yourself.
Lender Name and Loan Account Number: use the info of your current mortgage. Pay Off Loan As Part of Closing: YES. since the new loan will replace the old loan. Have your entered into a forbearance…? Normally NO. It is not a common case.
5. Underwriting and CTC:
The underwriter may ask for additional docs like new paystubs, new bank statements and new mortgage statement. LOE for credit inquiries；LOE for large deposits. Once all the conditions are satisfied, your loan will be CTC (Cleared to Close)。
Lender will send you Initial Closing Disclosure(CD) before or after CTC. This doc is very similar as Loan Estimate. Please let your LO know if any number is not correct. If your spouse is not the co-borrower, she/he needs to hand-sign the CD. Note that some numbers like prepaid interests and payoff may change depending on which day the loan will be closed.
6. Signing
Escrow will call you to schedule a signing appointment. You can go to the escrow company’s office OR ask for a mobile notary so you can sign the docs at home. The person who calls you might tell you that the mobile signing has a charge of $95. The fee is already included. Going to the office would not save your money. The escrow company will send an email to confirm the appointment. Please feel free to reply to the email if you have any questions.
If signing at home, please prepare blue ink pens and a table. You can sign at your garage or the backyard or any place you are comfortable with. Please follow the COVID protocol.
If married, both husband and wife need to be present to sign.
Get your driver’s license ready. If the lender is Provident Funding and you are not a citizen, get your green card or I-797 with current visa ready.
You can provide your bank account info for automatic payment at the signing.
If there is cash to close from borrower in the closing disclosure, please do a wire transfer ASAP after the signing or get a cashier’s check beforehand and give it to the notary. Note that the cashier’s check needs to be from one of the bank accounts you submittedto avoid unnecessary trouble.
Repeat step 5.2: if you haven’t, make sure that you understand the numbers on the Closing Disclosure to avoid questions at the signing. The notary does not know the details.
You can cancel the automatic payment of the next month with your old lender. If the lender is Provident Funding, please read Provident Funding
7. Funding
Lender will do funding review. There might be new conditions. Once the funding review passes, Escrow will disburse funds and record it at the county. Then your loan process is complete.
The balance on your old lender’s account might not go to zero immediately. It may take some time for the old lender to process the payoff demand.
The old lender will refund all the money in the old escrow account if you have one. If you don’t get a check within a month, please feel free to call your old lender.
In case the old lender gets more than the payoff amount, it will refund. Some banks like First Tech will refund it to your savings account directly.
Note that you can’t do another refinance or sell your house within 6 months. Otherwise there will be penalty (sometime it is as high as $10k) because if you do that, the lender will have monetary loss. Ask your LO if any questions.
8. New Lender
The new lender will send you a mail which might take a month. with the info in the mail, you can set up your new account. Note that the loan number in the mail is different from the one you have earlier. If you don’t get a mail, you can call the customer supportof the new lender. Some common websites: Dovenmuehle Mortgage https://dmi.yourmortgageonline.com/ , BSI https://myloanweb.com/BSI/, and One American –https://oneamericanmortgage.myloancare.com
In general, there is no payment for the month after your loan is closed. e.g. if your loan is closed in Feb, there will be no payment in March. Your first payment would be on 4/1.
Lender may sell your loan Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac. This is almost by design. The loan servicing company will be probably a different company.
Note that you can’t do another refinance or sell your house within 6 months. Otherwise there will be penalty (sometime it is as high as $10k) because if you do that, the lender will have monetary loss. Ask your LO if any questions.
Your escrow company Chicago Title will send you a questionnaire to fill out after you apply for a loan. The sender is noreply@inhere.com so the email will probably go to the spam folder. It is easy to fill out the form. Please refer to the screenshots as below.
Item – 各种Letter of explanation: 不需要模板，写个文档很简单地解释一下(跟平时写工作邮件一样)，写完后sign & date扫描上传即可
Item – 5.20 Provide proof BANK XXX is paid current in the month(s) of XX. – 如果问的前一个月，用最新mortgage statement即可，这样可以证明你前一个月的月供已经付过。如果问的当月，在现lender网站上把付款记录打印成pdf即可
Item – 6.75 Provident Funding will need to verify that XXX is actively employed with YYY on the day of funding. Provide a contact name along with a verifiable phone number and work email address for the borrower’s Supervisor and HR contact in order to facilitate this process. – 建议用同事/朋友的公司邮箱代替，细节参考第5步
Item – 10.36 Provide an invoice from your home owner’s association (HOA). – 找HOA要HOA statement即可
3. 签Closing Disclosure: 贷款完全批准后，lender会准备签字文档，主要有三个 1. Closing Disclosure: 电子签字即可 2. Closing Documents – Non Date Sensitive: 电子签字即可 3. Closing Documents – Date Sensitive: 当面签字的文档 如果有non borrowing配偶，需要打印#1. Closing Disclosure里的最后一页签字页(如下)，让配偶手签，签字日期写电签同一天，然后扫描发给Loan Officer
4. 签字时如果不是公民，需要带绿卡 或 I-797 with current visa。签字有两个特别注意事项，不是每位带你签字的人都清楚。签字后尽快上传most recent paystub
签字注意#1： 签NOTICE OF RIGHT TO CANCEL时，注意要在highlight的两个日期那里 Initial
签字注意#2： 签ALIEN STATUS ID CERTIFICATION时，Option 1是给绿卡用的，Option 3是给I-797 with visa用的
5. Funding review：这个阶段开始做VOE (verification of employment)，lender会说需要Manager/HR的email address，但用同事的也可以。在COVID期间Lender不认可第三方的网站譬如theworknumber.com, inverify.net, truework.com等，因为这些网站的信息最多一个月更新一次。建议用同事的email address，需要是公司邮箱。Funding前提醒一下VOE联系人就说lender会发邮件，最好能及时回。问的问题很简单(譬如 Is XXX actively employed with YYY?)，联系人按实际情况回复Yes即可，没什么责任
HOA questionnaire上有关于Condo小区的各种问题，譬如说HOA控制权在谁手里等，lender用它来审核是否能够批准贷款。另外，不少lender不接受新Condo。这个Questionnaire每家lender模板还不一样，很多HOA把这个服务外包给了一个叫Homewise的网站，在上面order需要收费，上面有通用模板，但各家lender总是要求自己的模板，大部分情况收费$200-$300，也有收近$400的。有少数小一些的HOA会自己填questionnaire。拿这个questionnaire需要时间，可能一二周，必要的情况可以花钱rush order
