Ask a Mortgage Banker: Why does it take so long to close?

From the time you start an application to the time you arrive at the closing table—it can take 30, 60, 90 days or more but why does it take so long? Heck, you can get a car financed in an hour! Stockton Mortgage works hard to get everyone to the closing table as quickly as possible but there are a lot of moving pieces along the way. Let’s look at some of the steps that could cause delays.

Providing documentation is one of the areas that could cause delays and the only one that you, the borrower has much of the control over. There is a lot of documentation needed to process the loan so the faster you can collect the needed information and get it over to your mortgage banker, the faster we can get to processing it all! For a list of the basic documents you will need, click here. You may be asked to provide additional documentation as the loan is being processed. This is especially true for customers who have situations in the past like bankruptcies, foreclosures, divorces, etc. Just keep in mind, that getting your documentation to us as quickly as possible will help expedite the loan process.

Another area that could cause delays is during the appraisal stage. While your lender does order the appraisal, they are not the organization that performs the appraisal so one must be scheduled with a disinterested third party. Typically, it doesn’t take too long, about 5-10 business days from the appraisal being scheduled to the results being sent in. That amount of time could vary based on the complexity of the property, for example, if there was a lot of acreage it could require more time. Also, following the appraisal and home inspection, the house may need repairs made to it—further postponing the closing date.

The last area I’ll bring up is one that could really slow the process way down; title issues. If there is a judgement or any other kind of lien on the property those must be settled before the home can be sold to you or anyone else. Our aim is to get your loan closed as efficiently and quickly as possible, the key to doing this is a high level of communication on your end and ours! To learn more about the homebuying process visit our site.

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