Conventional, FHA and jumbo financing for a primary home anywhere in Colorado. Three ways to buy the same house, and over the years you keep it they cost very different amounts.
Most buyers qualify for more than one of these. The one worth taking is whichever costs least across the years you actually keep the house, and that answer changes with your credit, your reserves and your price range.
A conventional loan takes as little as three percent down from a qualified buyer, and the mortgage insurance comes off once you hold twenty percent equity. Credit weighs more heavily here than it does on an FHA file, and so does the size of your reserves. For a borrower with a solid score, this is usually the cheapest money on the table.
Ask us to price it against FHA before you settle on either one.
FHA opens the door at three and a half percent down, with a lower credit bar and more room for a higher debt ratio. The trade is mortgage insurance that stays for the life of the loan on most files. Plenty of buyers start on FHA, build equity, and refinance into a conventional loan two or three years later.
That refinance is part of the plan, so we price both loans on the first call.
Above the county conforming limit, the file goes to jumbo. Colorado limits move every year, and they sit higher in the resort counties than they do on the Front Range, so the line between conforming and jumbo falls in a different place than most buyers assume. Jumbo underwriting looks harder at reserves, and the rate often lands closer to conventional than people expect.
Tell us the price range and we will tell you which side of that line you land on.
A pre-approval is a file, not a conversation. Credit pulled, documents reviewed, a letter a seller can rely on. Gather these four things and Steev can usually have the letter in your hands the same day you call.
One credit pull covers every lender we shop, and multiple mortgage inquiries inside a short window count as a single event on your score. Leave your cards alone until you close, and open nothing new.
Start Your ApplicationTwo years of W-2s and your most recent pay stubs. If you work for yourself, bring two years of returns, and ask about bank statement programs before you assume the returns rule you out.
Two months of statements for whatever account the down payment comes from. Gift money is allowed on most programs and has to be documented a particular way, so say early if family is helping.
Authorization for one pull. A score sitting thirty points below where it could be sometimes moves in a single billing cycle, which is worth knowing before you shop.
You get a pre-approval letter you can hand a seller, with a real file standing behind it. Steev reissues it at whatever number your offer needs, usually within the hour.
No application and no credit pull to begin. Tell Steev what you are trying to buy, and he will tell you what is possible.