7 Things You Shouldn’t Do After Applying for a Mortgage

Congratulations! You’ve found a home to buy and have applied for a mortgage, yay! I bet you are totally excited, I mean seriously, now you have the opportunity to decorate your new home, right? Hold it right there! There are things you shouldn’t do after applying for a mortgage!

So hold your horses! Before you make any big purchases, move any money around, or make any big-time life changes, consult your loan officer or mortgage broker first! They will be able to tell you how your decision will impact your home loan, however, as a rule of thumb, I always advise my clients to just leave their credit alone. But let me dive a little bit deeper on that.

Below is a list of 7 Things You Shouldn’t Do After Applying for a Mortgage! 

Some may seem obvious, but some may not!

1. Don’t change jobs or the way you are paid at your job! 

Your loan officer must be able to track the source and amount of your annual income. If possible, you’ll want to avoid changing from salary to commission or becoming self-employed during this time as well. Usually, if you are a salaried person, going for a job that pays more is a-okay but if you are going for a price cut, that could be a major no-no and mess up your approval.

2. Don’t deposit untraceable cash into your bank accounts. 

Lenders need to source your money and cash is not really traceable. Before you deposit any amount of cash into your accounts, discuss the proper way to document your transactions with your loan officer such as if it is a gift given to you by a family member.

3. Don’t make any large purchases like a new car or new furniture for your new home.

Yes I know, you want to furnish your new pad but new debt comes with it, including new monthly obligations. New obligations create new qualifications. People with new debt have a higher debt to income ratios… higher ratios make for riskier loans… and sometimes qualified borrowers no longer qualify, so yes, it’s one of those things you shouldn’t do after applying for a mortgage.

4. Don’t co-sign other loans for anyone.

And yes, I mean anyone! When you co-sign, you are obligated. You become one of the people associated with that loan, even if you aren’t the main party. As I had mentioned, with that obligation comes higher ratios as well. Even if you swear you will not be the one making the payments, your lender will have to count the payment against you.

5. Don’t change bank accounts. 

Remember, lenders need to source and track assets. That task is significantly easier when there is consistency among your accounts. Before you even transfer money between accounts, talk to your loan officer.

6. Don’t apply for new credit. 

It doesn’t matter whether it’s a new credit card or a new car. When you have your credit report run by organizations in multiple financial channels(mortgage, credit card, auto, etc.), your FICO score will be affected. Lower credit scores can determine your interest rate and maybe even your eligibility for approval.

7. Don’t close any credit accounts. 

You wouldn’t think that this would be on the list of things you shouldn’t do after applying for a mortgage but here we are! Many clients have erroneously believed that having less available credit makes them less risky and more likely to be approved. Wrong! A major component of your score is your length and depth of credit history (as opposed to just your payment history) and your total usage of credit as a percentage of available credit. Closing accounts has a negative impact on both of those determinants of your score.

If you do have any questions at all, please feel free to leave a question in the comments or contact me directly. I can connect you with mortgage lenders that I have worked with who can assist you on making the right educated choice when it comes to your credit.  I wouldn’t want to see you lose the home you love because of a bad choice that you made with it.