The offer was made, accepted and your dream home is now under contract. All that’s left is closing. Nothing can go wrong, right? Wrong! There are a few ways that you can totally mess up your real estate closing. Here are the biggies.

NO BIG PURCHASES!

First, and most important, NO BIG PURCHASES! Your lender will be double checking your accounts, finances, and so on up until the day of settlement. If you do something to drastically change your credit score or debt to income ratio, bank balances and so on, they will revoke their loan approval.

So no furniture purchases. No new credit cards. No new cars. Nothing that will upset that mortgage financing. That includes trying to hide money gifts to help with that purchase.

You must disclose any gifts of money to your lender early in the process because they need to review due to legal regulations evaluating gifts.

Don’t procrastinate with paperwork

When your lender, the closing company or attorney or Realtor ask for paperwork, get it to them on time. Not providing needed paperwork to your lender may mean they revoke approval of the loan. They will need tax records, pay stubs and other documentation proving your ability to repay their loan. The closing company will need inspection reports and so on. Not sending them will delay the closing. Don’t procrastinate.

Don’t change jobs

Another no-no is changing jobs mid process. Having a stable employment history is something that lenders want to see. If you are having trouble holding a job, you are a risk to them. That also includes switching positions from a salaried to a commission/bonus position with your current employer. Lenders look for a two year history in a current position and if the method of payment, I.e. from W-2 to 1099 you no longer have any income history in that position.

There are others, but these three will be a definite problem and will probably derail, and definitely delay your closing. Be smart and that new home will be yours…on time!