Free checklist
The Home Buyer’s Loan Checklist
David Kakish · Licensed in [states] · Good Debt Mortgage
Most people go into this process backwards. They find a house, then scramble to figure out what they can afford. This checklist runs the other direction. Start here, before you talk to anyone, and you’ll walk into every conversation knowing exactly where you stand.
Why Most Buyers Have Regret
The process feels hard because nobody tells you what to think about before it starts. By the time most buyers sit across from a lender, they’ve already skipped the steps that matter most. This checklist fixes that.
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Phase 1
Before You Start
Answer the questions a good loan officer would ask before they ever look at a number.
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Know What You're Actually Trying to Accomplish
Before you open a calculator or call anyone, answer these three questions for yourself.
Not “buy a house.” Why this, why now? Stop renting? More space for a growing family? Get into a neighborhood before prices go higher? Your answer shapes every decision that follows.
Being house-poor? Overextending? Getting taken advantage of because you don’t understand the paperwork? Naming the fear makes it easier to plan around.
Three years? Ten? Not sure? This single answer changes the math on loan type, whether to buy down your rate, and how much to put down.
Worth knowing
Some people are so afraid of being house-poor that they underbuy, then realize the house doesn’t work for their life. Others stretch too far and every other expense feels tight. The goal is a payment comfortable enough to live your life, and strategic enough that you’re not outgrowing the decision 18 months from now.
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Think It Through With AI
Use this before you call anyone. Ten minutes here will surface things you haven't thought of.
Be honest. The better your inputs, the more useful the conversation.
That’s what to bring to your first conversation with a lender.
How Good Debt Helps
This is how our first call goes. Live, with someone who does 20+ loans every month and can tell you in real time where your situation is strong, where it needs work, and what the market looks like for someone in your position. No application. No credit pull. Just the conversation.
3
Know Your Real Cash Number
Not a round number. The actual liquid money you're willing to put toward this purchase.
Savings accounts, checking, money market. Retirement accounts are not liquid without paying penalties and taxes. Your emergency fund is not available for this. You’ll need it after closing.
Lenders verify the source of every dollar at closing. Money sitting in your account for months is straightforward. A $30,000 transfer from a family member last week requires a gift letter. Know your source before your first lender conversation.
Down payment: determines your loan size and whether you pay mortgage insurance. Under 20% down, you will.Closing costs: typically 2 to 5% of the loan amount. On a $500,000 loan, that’s $10,000 to $25,000. This surprises almost everyone.Rate buydown: optional. You can pay points upfront to get a lower rate. Whether that makes sense depends on how long you stay in the loan. What Mortgage Points Really Cost →
Worth knowing
If you have $60,000 saved and you’re planning to put $55,000 down, you may not have enough left to close. Run the three-bucket math before you land on a down payment number.
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What Monthly Payment Are You Actually Comfortable With?
Not what a lender will approve. What you'd actually pay every month without regret.
This is your comfortable number.
This is your stretch number.
This is your ceiling. Know it before a lender finds it for you.
Job change. Car breaks down. Medical bill. Does the payment still work? If it only works when everything goes right, it’s a stretch payment, not a comfortable one.
Watch out
What you qualify for and what you’re comfortable with are two completely different numbers. A lender’s job is to tell you the first one. Figuring out the second one is yours.
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The Costs Nobody Warned You About
The payment on a Loan Estimate is principal and interest only. Your real monthly cost is higher. Here's everything that gets added on top, and everything that hits after closing that most people never budget for.
They often reassess after a sale. The previous owner’s tax bill is not your tax bill. Ask what the county assessed value was before listing and what it may become at your purchase price.
Premiums are rising in most markets. Get an actual quote before you finalize your budget, not the lender’s placeholder.
Monthly, quarterly, or annual. Know the frequency. Know what’s covered. Ask whether any special assessments are pending.
If your down payment is under 20%, add this to your monthly number. On a conventional loan it eventually falls off. On an FHA loan it typically stays for the life of the loan.
Heating and cooling in a larger home, or a different climate, can be dramatically different from what you pay now. Ask the seller for 12 months of utility bills.
The standard guidance is 1% of home value per year. On a $500,000 home, that’s $5,000 a year. It doesn’t mean you’ll spend it every year. It means you need it available.
If the house has a yard and you’re coming from an apartment, add that to your list. If you’re not mowing it yourself, add the service.
New construction often comes with large bare windows and nothing else. Covering them can run $3,000 to $8,000 depending on the house.
Confirm in writing before closing, not after. Fridge, washer, dryer. If it’s not in the contract, it may not be there when you move in.
Almost always forgotten until the week before closing. Get a quote early.
Every house has something the previous owner put off. Inspections catch most things, not everything. Budget a cushion. Going in with zero margin is a stressful way to start.
The day you close changes how much cash you bring to the table. Closing at the end of the month means prepaying only a few days of interest. Closing at the beginning means prepaying most of the month. How Your Closing Date Affects Your Cash to Close →
Watch out
Add all of this to your monthly number before you call a lender. The payment on their estimate is not your full cost. You’re the only one building the complete picture.
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A Few More Things Before You Call Anyone
These details shape what loan you qualify for and what your experience will look like.
Occupancy (primary, second home, investment) and property type (single-family, 1-4 unit, condo, or manufactured) each carry different rate pricing, different down payment requirements, and different rules. A condo isn’t priced like a single-family. A 2-4 unit isn’t priced like a 1-unit. Know both before you call.
Some loan programs and down payment assistance are specific to this. Know whether you qualify before you assume you don’t.
W-2 is the straightforward path. Self-employed, commission-heavy, or mixed income requires more documentation and more explanation. If your tax returns understate what you actually make, non-QM options exist: a bank statement loan qualifies off 12–24 months of deposits instead of tax returns, a P&L-only loan uses a CPA-prepared profit and loss statement, and a DSCR loan on an investment property qualifies off the property’s rental income instead of your personal income at all.
Car payments, student loans, minimum credit card payments. Lenders calculate a debt-to-income ratio. Know yours before they do.
60 days or 12 months changes how urgent everything else on this list is.
How Good Debt Helps
This is exactly how our first conversation starts. Before we pull a single number, we work through what you’re trying to accomplish, what you’re worried about, and what would make this feel like a win. Then we work backwards into a payment range, a cash strategy, and a loan structure that fits the life you’re building. Most people have never had that conversation before they applied. We have it first.
That’s Phase 1. Most people skip it entirely and go straight to calling lenders. That’s why the process feels disorienting. They’re making financial decisions before they’ve answered the life questions. If you’ve worked through everything above, you’re already ahead of almost every buyer a lender talks to.
Phase 2
Shopping for a Lender
Here's exactly what it looks like to do this well on your own.
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Gather Your Documents Before You Call Anyone
Every serious lender needs these before they can give you a real number. Call without them and the conversation goes nowhere.
All pages, all schedules. The full return, not a summary.
Lenders look at gaps, large deposits, and transfers. Missing pages trigger requests for more.
Business tax returns (last 2 years), a year-to-date profit and loss statement, and possibly business bank statements. This is a different process entirely. On a non-QM program, tax returns may not be part of it at all: a bank statement loan asks for 12–24 months of bank statements instead, and a P&L-only loan asks for a CPA-prepared profit and loss statement in place of returns.
The money cannot just appear in your account. The lender needs to know it doesn’t have to be repaid.
Worth knowing
Gather this once and keep it in one folder. You’ll upload the same set to every lender you apply with. Do it once, do it right.
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A Word About Rates Before You Start Comparing
Most people focus on the rate number. Here's what the rate number actually means.
Sometimes more than once. The rate from a headline last week, the one your coworker got six months ago, the one a lender quoted you verbally on Monday, none of those are the rate you’re comparing today.
A 30-year fixed prices differently than a 15-year fixed, an ARM, an FHA loan, a VA loan, or a jumbo loan. It’s a different pricing engine again for a non-QM program: bank statement, P&L-only, or DSCR on an investment property. You cannot compare a rate across programs as if they’re the same product.
Rates are not the same for a primary residence, a second home, and an investment property. A condo prices differently than a single-family home. If a lender’s quote assumes a different property type, the number doesn’t apply to you.
Sometimes you pay that cost in points upfront. Sometimes the lender covers their cost by giving you a slightly higher rate. A lower rate is not automatically the cheaper option. The math depends entirely on how long you stay in the loan.What Mortgage Points Really Cost →Temporary vs. Permanent Buydown →2-1 Buydown or Price Reduction? →
A 30-day lock prices differently than a 45 or 60-day lock. The longer the lock, the more the lender prices in risk that the market moves before you close. If your closing is 50 days out and a lender is quoting a 30-day lock, those numbers won’t hold.
Worth knowing
Don’t compare rates. Compare locked rates, on the same loan program, for the same property type, at the same lock period, from the same day. Everything else is noise.
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What Actually Happens When You Call
Most people expect to call a few lenders and get quotes. Here's what actually happens.
Plan on 1 to 2 going quiet after the application, taking longer than they should, or giving numbers too vague to compare. That’s not a flaw. That’s the process. Call more than you think you need.Who to contactYour current bank or credit union. You have a relationship, and credit unions tend to have competitive rates.2 to 3 direct lenders or mortgage companies. Not banks. Companies whose only product is mortgages.1 online lender. For a benchmark. Lower overhead sometimes means lower fees.Anyone referred to you. Include them. Just don’t compare a referral against nothing.
“I appreciate that, but I need an actual Loan Estimate before I can compare anything. Can we get the application started?”
“Multiple pulls within a 45-day window for the same loan type count as one inquiry. I’m shopping, and I’m pulling with everyone I’m seriously considering.”
If nothing by day 5, call. If nothing by day 6, move on.
“I’m comparing multiple estimates and I want to make sure I’m doing it right. Can you walk me through your Section A fees specifically?” A lender who deflects that question is showing you who they are before the loan starts.
Watch out
The first lender who calls you back is not necessarily the best one. Speed is a sales tactic. Take your 2 weeks. Compare real numbers.
How Good Debt Helps
We do 20+ loans every month. When we call lenders, they pick up. We see live wholesale pricing across 100+ lenders in real time. Instead of repeating the application process 5 times, uploading the same documents to 5 portals, and waiting 2 weeks for estimates that may no longer reflect the same market, you have one conversation with us. One application. One set of documents. Real comparisons, the same day.
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What to Ask When You Have Them on the Phone
Most people go blank. Here's the exact list.
"Is this rate locked or floating?" Unlocked means it can move before closing. A float is not a real number."What lock period is this based on?" A 30-day lock prices differently than a 45 or 60-day lock. Compare the same lock period across every lender."What would the rate be on a 45-day lock?" Ask for both. The difference tells you how they’re pricing risk.
"Is this rate with points or without?" Points are prepaid interest. You pay now to save later. It only makes sense if you stay in the loan long enough to break even."What would the rate be with zero points?" Ask for the no-points version first. Compare clean numbers, then decide if buying down makes sense."What would it cost to buy the rate down to [X]?" Get a dollar amount, not just a points number.
"What is your total Section A?" Origination, underwriting, processing. Get a dollar amount."Can you break out origination charges from discount points?" They live in the same section. They are not the same thing."What is your underwriting fee specifically?" It’s one of the most negotiable fees on the page. Lenders rarely volunteer it.
"Are your title and escrow estimates based on actual quotes or are they placeholders?" Most are placeholders. A lender who lowballs these makes their total look smaller than it will be at closing."Which title company are these fees based on?" If they can name one, you can call and verify.
Worth knowing
You don’t have to ask all of this on the first call. But get answers to all of it before you make a decision. A lender who deflects, gets defensive, or can’t give specific numbers is telling you something.
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When the Loan Estimates Land
You have real numbers in front of you. Here's what to actually look at.
Go deeperWalk through a real Loan Estimate line by line
Comparing a 30-year fixed to an ARM, or a 30-day lock to a 60-day lock, is comparing two different products.
A quote from last week is last week’s market. If estimates aren’t dated close together, ask for a refresh before you compare.
This is what the lender controls. Origination charges, underwriting fee, discount points. This is their price. Everything else on the page is either a third-party cost or a tax.
Origination is what the lender charges to do the loan. Discount points are optional prepaid interest to buy a lower rate. They live in the same section. They are not the same thing.What Mortgage Points Really Cost →
A negative number in Section A means the lender is giving you cash at closing in exchange for a higher rate. That is not a discount. It is a tradeoff. Know what you’re trading.
Title insurance, settlement fees, escrow fees. These are not lender fees. But lenders fill them in.
Watch out
This is where the comparison breaks. An aggressive lender can lowball Section C to make their total closing costs look smaller, without changing their rate or a single real fee. The loan doesn’t get cheaper. The form just gets better at hiding that it didn’t. To compare honestly: get a quote from a local title company and use the same number across every estimate. Then compare Section A and rate only.
A lower unlocked rate is a better guess, not a better deal.
On any legitimate purchase loan this says No. If it doesn’t, stop and ask exactly what triggers it before you go further.
How Good Debt Helps
When your Loan Estimate arrives, we record a video going line by line through it. The Section C problem is the first thing we look for. At closing, we do it again. Closing Disclosure next to the original Loan Estimate, so you can see exactly what moved between estimate and closing, and why. That’s the work.
That’s the full process. It’s a lot, and that’s honest. You can absolutely do all of this yourself. Most people don’t want to spend two weeks becoming an expert at something they’ll do once every few years. If that sounds like you, this is what we handle.
That’s the whole process. Now you know exactly what goes into it.
You can absolutely do all of this yourself. But most people don’t want to spend two weeks repeating applications, uploading the same documents to five different portals, and trying to decode a form the federal government designed, for a decision they’ll make once every few years. If that sounds like you, there’s a better way.
Good Debt Mortgage
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One application. 100+ lenders. No cost to you.
- Affordability conversation
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- Loan Estimate video walkthrough when it lands
- Closing Disclosure review before you sign
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