Next step

So now it was my responsibility to focus on getting good grades and finishing school, while Brennan focused on getting to know his new job and making money and saving it. I prepared myself not to see him for a month, until he came out for my birthday. It was hard but we got through it and appreciated the time we did have with each other even more. During this time, Brennan began looking on the Internet for homes in the Thornton, CO area by using redfin.com. He used information from his co-workers and from driving around to pinpoint certain areas that were desirable to live in. He chose a Realtor from redfin.com and began looking at homes in his price range. He also began shopping for a loan and a killer interest rate.

Going into buying our first home, I thought it was going to be a piece of cake. I worked in escrow in California for about six years, and understood the process. However, I had no idea what buyers had to go through to find a home, get a loan and actually close the whole deal.

We both thought Brennan would have no problem getting approved for a home loan. He had great credit, hardly any debt, and he has been in the same industry of work for over 10 years. But we were WRONG. Due to the economy and the downfall of many of the biggest home loan lenders, lenders now make it very difficult in getting a home loan.

First Brennan applied at Wells Fargo, he had gotten a pre-approval letter about 6 months earlier, so he figured it was the safest choice. Oh let me just say that just because you have a pre-approval letter from a lender, it does not guarantee a home loan approval from them. It basically just says, "hey you look good, we might lend to you if we feel like it." So we got a few other pre-approval letters from various lenders just to be safe, but as we found out later on, it didn't matter.

What it came down to was that Brennan didn't have enough time at his current and new job for the lenders liking. So after a couple of weeks of gathering information after information from him, they would turn him down.

He eventually found a Mortgage Broker that was local and referred to him from a co-worker that reassured him she could get him approved and a home loan. But not after submitting every kind of information known to man. I'm surprised they didn't ask for his blood type or who his pediatrician was when he was younger. Lets just say the lenders finally realized that they shouldn't lend to every Tom, Dick or Harry that they ran across. So now they are very strict and check and re-check all information submitted to them.

So what I learned in this process is if you want to buy a house and get a home loan, make sure you have a steady job and that you have been working there for more than 6 months. Also, if you are planning on moving to a new state, don't expect buying a house is going to be any easier than it it is in your current state of residence. What I have began to say because of this process is "expect the unexpected" because you will when buying a house.