Midori Miller, a real estate agent and trainer in Florida asked me three questions:
1- What piece of advice would you give a buyer in purchasing a home?
a- Fill out a uniform residential
loan application (Form 1003).
b- Organize your two year income and
employment history. That means you should copy the first two pages of
your 1040 income tax form for the last two years, your W-2 or 1099
forms supporting these tax forms, and your last 30 days worth of pay
stubs.
c- Gather up your asset statements:
checking account, savings account, securities account, IRA, 401(k), and
any annuities you have.
d- Now, get three sheets of paper. In BIG magic marker, PRINT, the following:
- APPLICATION
- INCOME
- ASSETS
These are your dividers.
e- Scan the package, IN ORDER, to a pdf format. Now, you have something to show lenders when you call around for a home loan.
2- What piece of advice do you have for real estate agents?
Work primarily with buyers whom are able to obtain mortgage financing. If you are partnering with a lender, develop a twelve month campaign, for buyer referrals, targeting people with wage-earning jobs. Groups to target would include:
Nurses, cops, firefighters, teachers, government workers, employees of big companies, and military service members are all likely prospects for home buying. While the larger transactions will be bought by the entrepreneurs, many business owners have difficulty documenting their income. A strong base of "wage-earners", as home buyers, will carry you through 2009.
3-What can REALTORs do to make your job easier?
Naturally, the easiest thing a REALTOR could do is to point a home buyer to the first answer. Educating borrowers about the importance of proper loan documentation, prior to calling a lender, makes our job a LOT easier. Taking "ownership" of the client, when they fail to comply with lender's documentation requests during the loan process, keeps transactions on schedule.
Great questions, Midori. Thanks for the insightful discussion!
