What you should expect from your lender

When it is a seller’s market a lot of people need to work harder for a buyer. The real estate market in the Denver Foothills is making it so homes move so quickly that if you blink you just might miss your dream home in the mountains. Evergreen is seeing, in almost all price points, homes going on the market on Friday and offers being accepted on Sunday evening of the same weekend. When things like this happens everyone needs to adjust their model or business hours. It has always been know that Realtors work hardest on the weekends. This is usually pretty true but a good Realtor is available all day into the evening as needed, especially in the crazy market we are in that a home can be sold in a matter of hours.

My lender told me he doesn’t work weekends…what can I do?

If your lender says something like that just keep in mind their are plenty of lenders out there that do work the weekends. A banker that truly wants your business will not work banker’s hours. In this crazy seller’s market you should not only have your bankers office number but his cell phone number as well. A majority of offers these days are written on Saturday and Sunday. Many listings are getting multiple offers, even in the price point of $750,000 and in the luxury real estate market. It is sort of an unwritten rule now that you must present a pre qualification letter from your lender at the time you make the offer. It is almost a guarantee that all the other offers on the table from other buyers are presented with a pre qual letter because their lender will take the 15 minutes out of his Sunday to write a letter saying you qualify to purchase the property. In a multiple offer situation a buyer wants to make their offer as strong as possible. So if a lender says they don’t work the weekend it might be in your best interest to find one that does. Since you might stand the chance of losing your dream home if you can’t get in touch with your lender and all the other buyers looking at the property can.

I feel bad about contacting my lender on Sunday while he is at his daughter’s pee-wee soccer game

If a lender makes you feel bad about contacting them on the weekend or says anything other than “sure I will get that letter to you very shortly, good luck with your offer” then that might be an indication this is a guy you might not want to work with going forward. One of the biggest pieces of the puzzle when buying your home is obviously financing it. Without finance and financing on time, your home might not close. It is very important for your lender to understand the market and know that if he doesn’t do his job their are 5 other buyers waiting in the wings hoping he won’t. Other buyers are hoping your lender doesn’t work the weekends because theirs does and they will be able to get their letter in while you are waiting until 10 am on Monday, 12 hours after the seller has already decided to go with an offer that they know for a fact the buyer can be funded.

Closing on the home should be everyone’s goal in a transaction

If there is a willing buyer and seller the goal for everyone should be to make it closing and have a successful closing. The lender, both Realtors and every other professional involved in the transaction should be working towards the same goal, closing on your new home. If anyone in the transaction is not willing to work towards the common goal then you should get rid of the party that doesn’t look.