Before you start looking for homes, it’s smart to get a pre-approval letter from your lender. You want to set yourself up to be the strongest buyer possible—the person the seller absolutely wants to deal with. It’s important to understand that to a seller, a lender’s pre-approval letter is considerably stronger than a pre-qualification letter. When a seller knows your financing is secure, your offer is taken more seriously.

To get pre-approved, you fill out our application with information including your name, current income and assets to determine how much you can reasonably afford. You’ll be asked for your Social Security Number to run a credit check, and we’ll provide you a summary of the report. 

Finding your perfect home is the most exciting part of the process. Connect with your real estate agent to start seeing amazing homes in your area. Real estate professionals are valuable partners in the process: they help you find the best home, put in an Offer to Purchase, negotiate the price and handle all the paperwork and details. When you find the right home and the seller accepts your offer, the home goes “under contract.”

The appraiser, an independent professional, thoroughly evaluates a home—in person—and examines similar properties before arriving at a valuation for the home

An inspector will review the electrical, plumbing, roof, overall condition of the home and more to ensure that there aren’t any problems. Agents can usually recommend a trustworthy licensed home inspector, and the inspection is generally scheduled within a week of the contract being signed. We recommend that you attend the inspection to get a better understanding of the inner workings of the home.

Underwriting sounds wonky, but it’s basically just verifying all the information that has been gathered, including your income, employment and assets as well as the property details. Once the underwriter has verified that your loan fits the guidelines, the Underwriter will sign-off on all documents and issue a final approval. Then the mortgage team schedules your closing and reviews the Closing Disclosure (CD), which is a standard document that details the finalized terms for the loan, including a breakdown of all costs and fees.

*Not all applicants will qualify.

Once your loan is fully approved, you’re ready to close your loan and get the keys to your new dream home. We’ll send you the closing package the day before your closing appointment. At closing, you’ll sign the remaining mortgage documents and pay your down payment and closing costs . WarCap is working to move even more of this process online, making it faster and more convenient than visiting an office to sign papers. 

*All closings are subject to the laws of the state where your mortgage is closed.