Providing the Documents For Your Mortgage Loan

Nothing can be done on the file unless we receive all your loan documents, and underwriting decisions cannot be reached without a complete set of those documents. Delivering your documents in a timely manner is really important if closing on time is important to you.

Your very own borrower online portal is the safest and fastest way to deliver your documents.  Login into BluecastleLending.com or use the link and you will be able to upload the documents with ease.

If you have documents that need to be scanned, you could log in to our website from your phone and take clear pictures of the documents. It will convert them to a pdf and will group the pages into one document. If you have documents already in a pdf format, simply upload them. Please note the system only accepts jpg and pdf extensions. 

Usually, the following (initial) documents are needed from each borrower:

1. Social Security Card
2. Driver’s license.

3. Paystubs – last thirty days worth of paystubs
4. Award letter if social security income, disability or pension income.
5. W2 – 2018
6. W2 – 2017
7. Tax return – 2018
8. Tax return – 2017

9. Bank Statement – last month.
10. Bank Statement – month prior to last
11. Retirement / Investment account – last quarterly statement (if any).

 

Apply for mortgage loan

We can take loan applications over the phone – call 954-866-0000, or you could come to our office in Coral Springs.  You can also apply online below.

 

Get Your Mortgage Loan Funded

This page assumes you have a property. It will assume we have pre-approved you and revised most pertinent documents to determine the likelihood of obtaining financing. We would have also generated a Direct Underwriting approval, and we should have had received an Approved / Eligible status. This page will outline for you what you can expect from Bluecastle Lending once you are ready to move forward towards funding your loan.

Getting a Preliminary Closing Disclosure

We will attain a Preliminary Closing Disclosure (Prelim CD) from the title company you selected to handle your closing, so we can find out how much you are going to be charged and accurately will include their fees in your Loan Estimate. On the other hand, if you do not have a preferred Settlement Service Provider, we will place the title order with the title company we normally use.  Their fees are accurately listed in our Loan Estimate tool.

Our Loan Estimate is very accurate and it includes all the fees that you will have at closing, It rarely changes at closing. A few things that will never change will be the interest rate (once locked), our origination charges (none), our underwriting charges (none), our processing charges (usually none unless we outsource it), our flood certification charges (none) and tax certification charges (none)

Providing your documents

Nothing can be done on the file unless we receive all your loan documents, and underwriting decisions cannot be reached without a complete set of those documents. If you take your time delivering documents, this will significantly delay your closing date.

We send you a link to our portal where you upload the documents, which are then sent to processing and then delivered to underwriting once the loan disclosures have been signed. Communication and prompt delivery of the  documents are the key to a smooth closing.

Preparing Disclosures

You will receive, within 3 business days from your loan application an official Loan Estimate plus several other pages worth of different disclosures.  We use digital signatures, which makes it very easy to sign from the convenience of your cell phone, work or home computer.

Paying for the appraisal

You will fill out a credit card authorization form and sign it, which will be given by Bluecastle Lending to the Appraisal Management Company. You will directly pay for the appraisal before closing. Usually, the cost is $425 for VA, $420 for Conventional loans, and $520 for FHA.

Submitting your loan to the lender

Once we have all the documents, we will send it to the Junior Underwriter for review. If there are documents that are missing, the file will be sent back asking for those documents. Incomplete files go into the “sleeping room” until they are complete.

Once the Jr. Underwriter deems to have a complete file without any missing documents, it is passed to the Sr.Underwriter to render a credit decision.

We will get, normally within 24 hours from submission, an Approval subject to Underwriting Conditions. As long as those conditions are met, the loan gets funded.

These conditions usually mean more documents that we need from you. Timely delivering these documents is crucial to get the loan back into underwriting. The Jr. Underwriter will not move the file forward until ALL the documents are received. The file goes back into sleeping mode until the documents are received, which at that point the file gets moved again to the Sr. Underwriter to render a credit decision.  Most underwriters will have 24 to 48 hours to review the file and render that decision. This process gets repeated until we get a beautiful Clear to Close subject to Pre-Funding Quality Assurance.

Receiving the Closing Disclosure

Once we received the Clear to Close, and file has been checked for completeness and passed the Pre-Funding Quality Assurance, it gets moved forward to Scheduling, usually within 1 business day from the Clear to Close date.

Scheduling department will send the Closing Disclosure. Borrowers must acknowledge receipt of this document in order to be able to close. Current banking laws prohibit funding until at least three business days have passed from the acknowledgment day before being able to fund the loan

Correcting Errors in the Closing Disclosure, and finalizing all the numbers.

Usually the Closing Disclosure has several errors that between the Title Company and Bluecastle we get the lender to correct. Once everyone is happy and all the numbers are correct, the final Closing Disclosure is issued and the numbers can no longer be changed.

Closing date

You will wire the amount listed in the Closing Disclosure to the title company. This amount will include all the fees. The title company will also receive the wire from the lender and will disburse to the seller and every other party their respective checks.

After signing documents for a while at the closing table, the package gets sent to the lender and upon receipt, it funds your loan. Congratulations! Your loan just got funded! Enjoy!

Increase your credit score

How do you get your credit score up?

The most common mistake we see on credit reports with low scores is a low number of active accounts, sometimes even none. This is easy to solve.

Increase your credit score: Increase the number of good accounts

Most people will only work on fighting / removing derogatory information and they forget to build positive credit.

If all you have on your credit report is one account, and that account is negative, 100% of your credit is negative. On the other hand, if you had 4 other accounts, 20% of your credit would be negative instead of 100%. Get a new credit card (secured credit card if you have bad credit),  become an authorized user, or both.

Increase your credit score: Become an Authorized User

One of the easiest ways to get positive credit instantaneously is to become an authorized user in someone else’s account that has a low balance, high credit limit on a credit card that has been opened for a long time. You will instantly inherit all their good (and bad) payment history. The results of this one little tool have been nothing short of remarkable.

It is important to know that the owner of the account will not lose any points on their score, or under most circumstances have any consequences to adding you as an authorized user providing you do not get a hold of that credit card.

If you don’t have a family member or friend that can help you out, there are companies that provide you with the service for a fee. Do a Google search for “authorized user tradelines” and see the results. The usual cost is around $500.00 to $600.00 per tradeline.

Increase your credit score: Get a new credit card

Another way is to Google “best-secured credit cards” and take your pick. Get two, don’t use one at all and do not spend more than $10.00 on the second card. Pay the entire bill every month. You can alternate the $10.00 spending every month in between the cards.

increase your credit score: Opt-out of credit offers.

Opting out of unsolicited credit offers via mail, phone calls, and email will rapidly increase your credit score, sometimes even 15 – 20 points. Of course, there is no guarantee on the increase, but certainly worth trying. Visit the FTC website and follow the prompts.

Increase your credit score: Reduce your balances or increase your limit, so you utilize no more than 30% of the high credit

This category considers both your installment loans (e.g. a mortgage or car loan) and your revolving accounts (e.g. credit cards, lines of credit). However, your revolving balances typically cause this category to fluctuate (positively and negatively) more than your installment accounts.

It is how much you owe compared to the credit card’s limit. If you have a $5,000.00 limit card and you owe $2,500, your utilization ratio is 50%. Add up all your limits on all your balances and divide your total balance by your total limit, and that’s your overall debt-to-limit ratio. The lower the overall ratio, the better the score.

• If you can’t pay down the debt, ask for higher credit limits from your credit card companies. Higher limits equal better debt-to-credit-limit ratios.

• Become an authorized user in someone else’s account positive credit card account (with their permission). This will allow the additional available credit to appear on your report and lower your overall utilization ratio–which could lead to score improvement.

• Pay down any cards that are over-the-limit until they are within the limit. This should help you avoid additional over-the-limit fees too.

• Pay down your balances so that no debt’s “utilization ratio” is higher than 30% – ever.

Once below 30%, start paying cards completely off one at a time. Don’t close them once they’re paid – ever.

• If financially possible, pay off your credit card balances to zero monthly. Alternatively, to less than 20%.

Remove Derogatory Accounts:  If your debt is older than seven years.

If you have bad credit whereas the first payment default (and the last payment you made) is older than 7 years, the Fair Credit Reporting Act says it must be removed from your report – by law. I personally researched the statutes (I am not a lawyer nor a credit restoration agency) and I created this letter to write to the bureaus to clean up my own credit report:

CREDIT BUREAU NAME
CREDIT BUREAU PO BOX
CREDIT BUREAU CITY, STATE AND ZIP

Reference:
YOUR NAME
YOUR ADDRESS
YOUR CITY, STATE AND ZIP
YOUR SOCIAL SECURITY NUMBER

Dear CREDIT BUREAU NAME,

Pursuant to the Fair Credit Reporting Act [15 USC 1681] Section 605 (a) (4) ; 605 (c) (1) and 605 (c) (2), the requirements relating to information excluded from consumer reports must be followed by the credit reporting agencies. In my report, there are a number of delinquencies that are still reporting which antedate the report by more than seven years, as evidenced by the creditor self-reported date of first delinquency. It is your obligation to delete the negative items, as follows:

NAME OF CREDITOR – account number. DATE was the last activity on the account, making this account older than seven years. Please remove.

Do this for each account that is older than seven years. Be aware that while you dispute items, you will not be able to secure a mortgage as all disputes must be closed before we pull your credit.

For Experian, the address is P.O.Box 2002 Allen, TX 75013
For Equifax, the address is P.O. Box 740241 Atlanta, GA 30374
For Transunion, the address is P.O. Box 1000 Chester, PA 19022

Get a copy of your credit report, see what is bad, get the address from the bureaus, and mail them a letter.

Remove Derogatory Accounts: Collections

This paragraph works really well with medical collections from hospitals or any collection where you have not signed anything. In the same letter format as outlined above, add to the above letter the collection account information with the following:

NAME OF COLLECTION AGENCY account number. This collection is not valid. Please provide documentation with my signature indicating that I have contracted or agreed for this company to perform any services for me.

On the other hand, if you have a small collection from a service provider (like a cell phone or cable bill), you can call them and apologizing profusely say that you were not aware that you owed them money, and to please delete the collection from your credit report upon you making a full payment for your “had no idea” debt. The key word is deletion from your score. If this collection is within the last 12 months, it will increase your score significantly (after the deletion). Within 4 years it will increase it as well.

You can shop for a mortgage and it will not hurt your credit

You have 45 days to do so, and it will only affect your score once. See more information coming directly from the CFPB: https://www.consumerfinance.gov/ask-cfpb/what-exactly-happens-when-a-mortgage-lender-checks-my-credit-en-2005/