ITIN Mortgage

Hi- we were supposed to close on our new house today.  First we were supposed to attend the closing of our old house; we needed the proceeds for the new house.  Unfortunately our buyers had last minute problems with the underwriting office.  Apparently the buyer’s wife had to show proof of apartment rental over the last year.  She used a fake social security number (or someone else’s number) to get her apartment. She may not be legally in the country although her husband is, and their lender is using his financial info to secure the loan.  When she and her husband applied for the loan to buy our house, she used her tax ID number instead. So—-her social security number and tax ID number don’t match, and consequently the paperwork was unacceptable, and nobody closed today.  This has been a nightmare- we’ve had to call the utility companies to keep our lights, water, phone and gas on, etc.

Anyway- my real estate agent said not to lose hope- apparently the buyer’s lender is going to try a rapid rescore.  Could you please explain how this could help if the buyer’s wife is illegally in this country?

We’re trying for another closing day on Wednesday, July 18.  I’ve cried a lot of tears over this.  We worked very hard to get this deal done and now it’s fallen apart before our eyes.  It’s a distinct possibility that we may have to scratch the whole deal, put our house back on the market, and lose the home we were going to buy.  Please advise what you think, and thank you.

Kat

————————

Hi Kat,

You’ve brought up a few points.  You write: “She may not be legally in the country although her husband is, and their lender is using his financial information to secure the loan”.  The answer to that is simple.  If her income/assets are not required to qualify for the loan then remove her from the loan application.  Problem solved. 

I’m only guessing here, but perhaps her income is needed to qualify for the loan.  You write: “When she and her husband applied for the loan to buy our house, she used her tax ID number instead”.  The loan officer should have been able to identify this immediately.  Both a SSN and an ITIN have nine digits, but unlike a SSN, the ITIN begins with the number ‘9’. 

Without going too far off on a tangent and politics aside, there are loan programs for ITIN borrowers.  In addition, a credit report and credit score can be established under an ITIN.  According to Experian.com: “Individual tax identification numbers (ITIN) – not employer tax identification numbers (ETIN) – are legitimate identifiers for new immigrants. The numbers take the same form as a Social Security number. When used to apply for credit, the ITIN can be added to your credit history in the SSN field, although there might be an alert added to the report indicating the ITIN is not recognized as a valid SSN.”

Unfortunately, the story seems to take a bizarre turn when rapid rescore is mentioned as a solution to the incongruous rental verification (a/k/a VOR), because a VOR (corrected or not) can’t improve FICO through a rapid rescore.  I’m only guessing here, but the LO may be attempting a rapid rescore for the husband, so that he moves up into the No Ratio or No Doc bucket and can qualify on his own.

Kat, I am thankful for your question as it further emphasizes to me the importance of the role of the LO in today’s real estate market.  As a side note, the Broken Credit Blog is currently adding loan officers and mortgage brokers from across the country to its database to serve our visitors.  For what its worth, there’s no money in it for the Broken Credit Blog.  To date, the BCB has not accepted one penny from any party or any advertiser.  Now, that’s not because people haven’t offered.  The advertising offers come in daily and some are more annoying than others.  We are looking to establish goodwill from everyone in the credit world and, in that regard, our satisfaction comes from knowing that your loans closed on time and at the same terms as were initially promised. 

Thanks for the questions and hope this helps.

Paul

(source=metromail.com/ask_max/max040704c.html)