Understanding the Loan Process

In order to purchase a loan, you need to know about loans. You need to know the different loans to choose from, what loan best meets your needs and what you can afford, as well as what the loan process entails.

First, you should be familiar with a traditional loan process. This standard process is what you will find with most lenders, with maybe a slight variation or different order.

If you use a bank, it will usually take 40 days to process your loan once you have selected it. If you go through a lender, a Loan Officer in the branch office will pre-qualify you and obtain all of the necessary documentation and information. The Loan Officer will then mail or fax all of this paperwork to the corporate headquarters.

There is then someone in the main office that goes over your information, reviewing your background and your credit. If this processor has any questions or needs more supporting documents, that person will contact the branch office who will relay the request to you. After you send the central office all of the required documents and they have all been approved, all of your information is sent to an underwriter.

An underwriter is usually anonymous to you. This person will go over your file and decide to approve or disapprove you for your requested loan. This person cannot be biased since he or she has not met you and is most likely not located near you.

Once approved by the underwriter, a closer will put all of the paperwork together and sends it all back to the local branch office. Finally, a title company will close the loan. As you can see, this is a very cyclical and bureaucratic process.

What is good news is that Countrywide Home Loans makes the loan process so much easier for you! It will reduce the amount of time to process your loan, making it well under the usual 40 days. It does not have an eternal chain of checks and balances to scrutinize your application. Countrywide works to serve you and get your loan to you as quickly and conveniently as possible.

You can apply online or by phone and everything is taken care of in one center. Countrywide offers more than 100 home loans with quick approval and an even faster program for established customers. All of these benefits make getting a loan and owning a home easy with Countrywide.