Home Loans During COVID-19

Lately I’ve been getting lots of questions from friends and clients about how the lending business is going during these weird pandemic times. With low interest rates, things are booming, right? Yes and no.

New Rules, New Rates

In March, the mortgage industry put a brief pause on new loans while Fannie Mae created new mortgage lending guidelines. During this time, we were still allowed to close loans already in process. The new guidelines are more restrictive, limiting some of the types of loans we can do and making the income verification process much more thorough.

In the months since then, interest rates have dropped to an all-time low, which has provided many people a great opportunity to refinance to a lower monthly payment or to buy a house with a historic low interest rate. So, in spite of the pandemic, our industry is still moving forward.

Closing Time

I’ve written before about closings—the formal and usually celebratory end of the mortgage process. As closings have moved from an event with most or all parties around a big table to mobile notaries on patios, I’ve found that this is the part of the process I miss most.

From an efficiency point, in the modern mortgage process, there isn’t usually a reason for me to be at the closing. From a more practical point, when I do attend closings, it seems like I always end up answering some questions about the documents. 

From an emotional point, closings are the happy part of the process. For a job that has moved to be largely online and over the phone, closings are a rare chance to meet in person. After the emotional roller coaster of the house buying process, it is a pleasant way to bring it to a close, meeting the buyers I’ve been working with for months and meeting or reconnecting with the closing agent and real estate agents. 

See Ya On the Zooms

It seems like it will be quite a while before we are closing in person again, if we go back to that model at all. In the meantime, we’ll keep closing virtually, and buyers will still be excited about their new homes, even without the slightly old-fashioned meeting at the big table.