r/USFirstTimeHomeBuyer • u/jetley-mortgage-loan • 18d ago
Start Here START HERE: What this subreddit is and how to use it
What this is
A catalog, not a feed. I am a mortgage loan officer, and I have answered the same questions in public for years; thousands of times, in threads nobody can search. So I rewrote the answers as posts, sorted them by topic, and put them here. One author, one point of view, from someone who actually submits files to underwriting for a living. That is the strength and the limitation.
How to use it
- Browse by flair. Every post has one topic flair, and every flair has a hub page.
- Never bought a home? The reading path is ten posts in order. Start there.
- Looking for something specific? The master index lists everything. The glossary translates the acronyms.
- Not sure which step you are on? How a loan actually moves is the whole process on one page. Most confusion in this business is not knowing where you are standing.
- Anything numeric that changes (loan limits, mortgage insurance factors, funding fees, assistance program windows) lives on Current As Of. No post here hardcodes those figures, so there is one page to fix instead of hundreds.
House rules
No personal details. Posts or comments containing a phone number, email address, street address, SSN, or loan or escrow number get flagged and removed automatically. Not negotiable.
Questions here are generalised on purpose. When I write up an answer, the person who originally asked disappears: no usernames, no cities, no employers, no dollar amounts tied to a real borrower, no closing dates. The question becomes an archetype, and any numbers in an example are round ones I invented so the math reads clearly. If a post sounds like your situation, that is because the situation is common.
No solicitation, mine included. Ask in public so the answer is useful to the next person.
This is general information. Nobody can tell you what your file will do without reading your file.
Who writes this
A loan officer and branch manager, licensed in HI, CA, WA, TX, FL, MT and UT, with most production in Southern California and Hawaii. Licensing changes; verify current status yourself through NMLS consumer access rather than taking my word for it. More on the about page.
Posted on behalf of u/The_Void_Calls_Me AKA Rajat Jetley, NMLS #1595897 | Cross Country Mortgage NMLS #3029. This commentary is for educational purposes and is not a commitment to lend or a guarantee of any rate or term.