Mortgage approval documents

minkoen - all of those documents will eventually be needed. And yes, it does sound a little scary to be providing pertinent personal info. However, to start, all that should be needed is a completed applcation in which you will provide (verbally or written) income and asset information and credit needs to be ran (so ss #s will be required to give you an accurate approval). Once you are pre-approved based on the information you provided and you sign the purchase contract all those documents will be required. At some point you will have to decide if you trust the mortgage broker/banker and whether you want to start providing those documents. Are you dealing with a mortgage broker or a bank? sunny.hong@bankofamerica.com

be prepared to give them the tissue you sneezed in 6 months ago. it is an extremely intrusive/invasive process. And unless you have anything other then one account with cash sitting in a savings account and the only deposits into the account is your regular pay be prepared to write lots of letters explaining. it's the process.....

If you dont trust your your loan officer with this information you probably should be working with somebody else.

These are routine questions in order to qualify you for a mortgage. It is a little scary to provide a complete stranger with all this personal information, but it is necessary:)

minkoen, this is routine. You're asking somebody to loan you a mountain of money! If the mortgage broker him/herself is the only problem, then find a personality you like better.

However, if this info request sincerely freaks you out--and you indicate it does--do yourself and everyone else a huge favor and start looking for a nice rental home.

Because you're going to pass out cold once you start getting into the buying process. This is just the beginning of what would be a very, very emotional ride for you. You don't know much about how to buy an apartment in Manhattan, clearly, and fear of the unknown is proven to heighten anxiety.

If you feel you must buy now for some reason--Go to the bookstore and get some books on how to buy a home/apartment. Do research on mortgages so you understand why you are being asked to provide certain kinds of info.

Spend a few weeks studying what will probably be the biggest purchase of your life up to this point, and then go out and start looking at potential homes.

And then get your mortgage pre-approval first, before looking. How do you even know you can get a mortgage? You don't know until you get a yes from a lender. Right now the default setting is "no."

{Manhattan real estate agent.}

I am in the process now of buying a new apartment (my second) and can attest that the documentation requested are only prliminary, and the basics to get started with getting a pre-qualification letter that is requested by many brokers when making a bid for an apartment in NYC.

I disagree w/Flutter though about the need to get pre-approval for a mortgage. Why lock yourself into one lender or one mortgage broker firm--better to get a qualification letter from a mortgage broker or a bank when you find something you like and make a bid. In this market it could be a while before you find anything.

You should however make sure you know what you can afford and it would be helpful to speak with a bank and/or a couple of brokers to get a sense of what is realistic in terms of the mortgage market and your financial situation without handing over scores of documents and pulling your credit. Having multiple credit checks over a certain period of time can also hurt your score and thus ability to get a mortgage.

As a personal aside, I was working with a mortgage broker who pre-qualified me for a mortgage, but when I found something I really liked and it became time to get approved for a mortgage, I ended up going with a bank due to significantly lower rate I was ablt to secure.

Overall though agree with fluter--educate yourself. Everyone is out for their self interests so mind your own back, and don't hesitate to ask questions, no matter how dumb they may seem.

Fluter, thanx for your arrogant reaction. It helps people answer the question 'who not to work with'.
We have been pre-approved before and are buying in Brooklyn, not in manhattan.
The reason we would send these documents is exactly to find out if we can get a mortgage.
We've been scanning the market since January and i dare to say that we're pretty well educated buyers.
The fact that sending our social and other personal documents around scares us doesn't prove the opposite.

That info is nothing.
Consider what info you need to provide in order to be a regular streeteasy poster.
You need to provide:

-Employment or excuse for non employment, such as: i fit in as a person in a household which makes a certain amount of money that makes it very cost ineffective for me to work in a traditional sense.
-Spouse's employment and title and number of people laid off for cause
-Where you live
-Monthly Rent and amount of spent on kitchen renovation
-Location of summer/weekend home
-Daughter's sexual and medical history
-Frequency of eating at McDonalds and foods eaten
-Weight, e.g. 230 pounds
-Topics you discussed in front of the legislature as a young precocious child
-Other things that make you angry and/or sad

Oh, and how could I forget

-Historical relationship with your toilet
-List of assets belonging to your landlord that you feel you are entitled to

do you guys read what you are saying?

You are asking for X amount of dollars for a loan, and you DONT want to give your personal information??

NUTS! do you want the banks to automatically trust you?? maybe if their loan doc requirements were there since the beginning of this real estate bubble, we wouldn't have this huge financial disaster.