The feeling of rejection can be overwhelming especially if it is for a mortgage denial. If you applied for a mortgage to buy a home, chances are you were making major plans in your life to prepare for your move. You were probably excited and told friends and family and now must deal with the embarrassment of telling them you couldn’t get approved for a loan.

Before you throw in the towel and accept that you cannot get a mortgage, there are 5 steps you should take to review your options.

1) Ask Your Loan Officer Why You Were Denied for a Mortgage

When a home loan gets denied, the financial institution that you applied with must issue a Notice of Adverse Action. This is a form sent to you within 30 days of your mortgage denial. Regulations require the form to list “A statement of specific reasons for the action taken.”

If you are still unsure why your loan was not approved, you should ask your loan officer why you were denied. It is your loan officer’s job to properly explain to you why your loan was not approved and provide options and alternatives.

2) Confirm Your Information is Correct on your Loan Application and Credit Report

Once you know the specific reason why your mortgage was denied, your next step is to confirm that all of your information was accurate on your loan application. Take another look at your information on the application that you signed and confirm that your income, assets, and liabilities are all accurate.

If the reason for your loan denial was due to credit, you should request a free copy of your credit report which can be done annually to confirm your information is accurate. Review all items to make sure there are no errors. Common errors on credit are late payments and collection accounts that do not belong to you.

If you have errors on your credit report, provide documentation to your loan officer and ask about options to do a rapid rescoring of your credit to fix the errors. You could also contact the credit bureaus directly and request corrections which could take 30+ days.

3) Look in the Mirror and Confirm if Now is the Right Time to get a Mortgage

If your mortgage was denied, it may make sense to look in the mirror and ask yourself if now is the right time to get a mortgage. Many times, people get the idea of buying a home but they are unable to keep up with their current bills. Adding a mortgage on to your already tight budget may be a poor financial decision.

Mortgage applications are commonly denied because the underwriter’s research finds omissions on the borrower’s application. For example, if you pay child support and did not tell your loan officer, an underwriter may discover this extra obligation on your paystubs. Underwriters also have software to scan public records for previous foreclosures, judgments and real estate owned. Any of these factors could easily lead to your loan being denied if you did not disclose this information up front.

A loan officer’s job is to work with you as a team to find solutions to get you approved for a mortgage. Be straight forward with your loan officer so they can better assist you and anticipate potential issues up front. If you applied for a loan and it was denied because you withheld information when you did your loan application, you should a step back and refocus your frustration on fixing the underlying issues.

4) Work to Fix the Reasons Why Your Mortgage Was Rejected

There are a million ways a mortgage can be denied. It is difficult to anticipate all potential underwriting issues up front despite you and your loan officer’s best efforts. Now that you know the reason why your loan was rejected, you should work on fixing the reasons so you can re-apply in the future. Here are some common reasons why mortgages are denied and solutions to get your ready for approval:

Your Loan was Denied because your Credit Score is Too Low

If your credit score is too low, there may be easy things that you can do to improve the score. The quickest and easiest options is to pay down credit card balances. Part of your credit scoring equation is your credit/debt ratio. All three major credit bureaus analyze the amount of available credit and how much of that you are utilizing.

To get the highest credit scores, you will need to pay down your credit card. For example, if your credit card limit is $1,000 and you owe $989, this is essentially a maxed out credit account which reflects negatively on your scores. To improve your credit you should pay down your balance to 30% or less of your credit limit. In this case you would need to pay down the balance to under $300. You will then need to wait for the creditor to report again to the credit bureaus before having your credit report updated.

Fixing errors on your credit should be another easy solution to improving your score. You can certainly contact the credit bureaus and dispute inaccurate information on your own or you could speak with a credit repair agency for assistance. This process can take several months and should not be done during a loan application.

If your credit score was too low, you may still qualify for other loan types. Conventional mortgages are very credit score driven while FHA Loans are more flexible on credit requirements.

Your Loan was Denied due to High Debt-to-Income Ratios

If your loan was denied because your debt-to-income ratio was too high, this means that you have too much debt for your qualifying income. There are two solutions to this problem, A) Increase your income or B) Reduce your Debts.

1. Increasing your income sounds great but it may not be an easy solution. If you have been promised a raise at your job but not gotten it yet, then you may want to speak with human resources about getting a raise. If you are a w2 employee, underwriters will allow your new pay rate for qualifying right away. Getting a 2^nd job may help you with more cash flow, but typically you cannot count income from a 2^nd job unless you have a 2 year history of working more than one job.
2. The easier answer to fixing your debt-to-income ratio is to examine your current obligations and see what debts you could get paid off. This includes, paying off credit cards or installment loans or selling things. If your goal is to buy a home, it may be a good time to sell that expensive camper to get rid of the monthly payment. Alternately you could look at buying a less expensive house that would better fit in your budget. Lastly, you could review options to consolidate debt and refinance high interest credit cards into a lower payment.

Your Loan was Denied due to Insufficient Assets

When you buy a home, you are required to document the money needed for your down payment. Part of the underwriting process is sourcing and seasoning your assets. This means that you need to show where your money came from if it was freshly deposited into your bank accounts. Unverified deposits must be subtracted from your available assets that you can use to qualify for a mortgage.

If your loan was denied because you did not have enough cash, there are several solutions you can consider:

Look for Mortgage Options with a Low Down Payment or No Down Payment: The current lender you are working with may not have as many options for low down payment mortgages. There may be home loans that require less cash for your down payment.

Save up Money in your bank account:

Cash on hand cannot be used to qualify for a mortgage. You cannot deposit large sums of money into your bank account and use it to buy a home. An alternate option to this is to deposit only your weekly paycheck and let that accumulate while you pay your expenses with the cash on hand.

Look for Gift Options:

When buying a home, you may be able to get a gift from a family member to use towards your down payment. Most loans allow for this as an option. Have a conversation with your family members and see if they have some available asset they could gift to you so you can become a home owner.

The last option to review if your loan was denied because of insufficient assets is to sell your belongings. Remember documentation is key if you are going to sell things to use as a down payment on a home. You should keep a thorough paper-trail including a sales agreement signed by both parties, an appraisal of the item you are selling, documentation that you are the owner of the item and proof of payment such as a copy of the check or money order. Do not accept cash as cash cannot be easily verified.

5) Get a Second Opinion from a Different Mortgage Company

If you have completed the first 4 Steps and did not find a quick solution to get approved for a mortgage, then the best answer is to get a second opinion from a different mortgage company. No two lenders are alike. All lenders have different guidelines and requirements for financing. A bank or lender may have denied your loan due to one of their internal “overlays” which is an additional restriction on financing.

Your best chances at financing are to get a second opinion form a mortgage broker. Mortgage brokers will have access to multiple banks and lenders and can review all your home loan options with one application. Typically mortgage brokers can also offer lower rates and lower costs than other banks and lenders.

To get a second opinion on your home loan options call a licensed loan officer at Riverbank today at 800-555-2098. Our experienced loan officers will take the time to review why you were denied by the other lender and provide solutions to help get your approved for a mortgage.