The market has changed significantly in recent years. Get helpful advice on how to prepare for and what to expect from the mortgage application process.

Key Takeaways
• Today’s loan approval process is much more thorough than in years past
• Be prepared to show all income and assets, any outstanding debts owed and specific spending activity
• It’s important to know how much you qualify for before starting your home search

Videos are for informational purposes only and represent the opinions of the speakers. Chase does not warrant the completeness, timeliness or accuracy of the content.

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VIDEO TRANSCRIPT

JA: I always tell people, ‘Even if you bought a home or refinanced, even two years ago, it’s a different environment.’

JAMIE: They ask so many questions now after the mortgage debt crisis of 2008, that compared to what in 2003 when I bought my condo.

MANDY: They looked at everything. Like I mentioned before. Our mortgage banker, she went and she looked under every rock that we had as far as finances go.

JA: I have to make sure that you qualify for a mortgage based on how much of your income can be going towards a housing payment and look at it for the long term of the loan to say you know what is the likely hood of your ability to pay back on this loan. Does this exist or not.

RYAN: I think they’re preparing people a little bit before even before they’ve started the home search. They’ve been trying to go through more of their financial documents. Really go through the criteria so that they don’t have any hidden surprises that come up later.

ERIC: Prior to us moving out and getting our old house for sale I got preapproved for everything, from several different lenders. Worked out the financing to figure out how much our payment could be. What we could afford.

RYAN: It’s setting some of those restrictions to make more responsible borrowers. So people are actually can go in there and live carefree in their home. Be able to feel confident with the payments they’re making. Really focus on making it a home then just being more of a burden of having a mortgage.

JA: I may have to come to you and ask for a more detailed explanation about a certain bank deposit that you might have made.

JAMIE: What are your names? What are your incomes? What are your assets? If you have a condo with a mortgage and you’re trying to buy a house with a mortgage, your debt to income ratio is pretty high.

JA: So, some of the rules that went into effect this past year actually was to make sure that all of the lenders were much more in line as far as the debt to income ratio guideline.

AMY: It was going so fast that it didn’t…if we weren’t ready. If we didn’t know how much money we could spend or how much we were approved for. Other people were kind of stepping in and making bids. It was just a good idea to have all of that ready.