Here are a few points about the current lending market and its impact on the purchase (or sale) of a home. Much of this is more relevant for short-sales or foreclosure purchases, but those types of transactions are now quite common (and will be here for a while) so they're impacting the process for everyone. This was provided by Steve Guenza of Coldwell Banker Mortgage and you can reach him at (707) 765-4453 or email.

Closing Dates
Even though we are settling down a little, I can not promise a close sooner than 30 days. I would still love to see 45 days, but try telling a seller that!! There are many new guidelines that need to take place, making the loan process longer. Also, Appraisers have new forms and guidelines that take longer. Documentation overload!!

Short Sales
Make sure that you have a signed agreement from the lenders. I am seeing the short sale agreements change after the verbal acceptance and I have already locked in a borrower.

Foreclosures
Same as with Short Sales, I am seeing a verbal acceptance from the asset managers or banks. We all know, verbal acceptances are not valid. We can’t truly underwrite a loan until we have a valid, fully executed purchase agreement on file. I have seen the banks not getting back the signed agreement for up to 45 days. This obviously delays the closing.

Time Frames
By the time the seller gets back the signed purchase agreement, the time frames are based on the original verbal acceptance. You might want to include that ‘All time frames start on the date the signed, fully executed contract is delivered to buyer or agent’. Of course speak with your Broker or Manager.

Buyers Qualifications
I wish I could say we could still be ‘creative’ we just can’t anymore. Documentation and paper trail is everything. Buyers just can’t get their down payment from anywhere, large deposits have to be explained and documented. Self employed borrowers are being scrutinized like never before. Income is being more averaged than just using current pay.

Closing
Remember the good ol' days when you brought your buyer to the local title company to close? More and more foreclosure and short sales are picking title and escrow companies for you and they just don’t seem to have the sense of urgency or loyalty to our clients, but rather to the seller. Traveling notaries to sign your buyers seem to be the norm. Nothing against traveling notaries, its just they don’t take the time or have the knowledge of our local escrow companies.

Also the days of signing and closing in a timely manner seems to be going to the wayside. In a ‘normal’ world, buyers sign the loan documents and the escrow officer orders the funds. In 48 hours we fund, then recording happens. Nowadays, it seems the seller wants to approve the signed HUD-1 from the buyer, and instructs the escrow officer not to request funds until that is approved. This can cause a further delay in closing that we have no control over.