Start to close
Twelve stages, including the ones nobody schedules
Most process diagrams stop at four boxes and skip the parts that actually take time. This is the honest length of it, with the two stages that have no date attached marked as such.
The column
Twelve stages. Two of them — finding a house, and waiting on an association — have no date attached to them, and are marked as such rather than given an invented one.
01 Day 0
The first conversation
Twenty-five minutes on the phone. Income, what you own, what you owe, what you are hoping to buy and by when. Nothing is submitted, nothing is pulled, and no document is required to have this conversation.
If your file has a problem, this is where you hear about it.
02 Day 0–2
Documents, once
A list that fits on one screen and is specific to your file rather than a universal checklist. Pay stubs, returns, statements. You send them once. I do not ask for them again in week five because somebody else lost them.
03 Day 2
Credit, with your say-so
One hard pull. Multiple mortgage inquiries inside a short shopping window are generally treated as a single event by the scoring models, which is what makes shopping possible at all.
04 Day 2–4
Structure before shopping
Which program, which term, how much down, whether points make sense, whether mortgage insurance is worth avoiding. Getting this wrong and then shopping hard is how people end up with a cheap rate on the wrong loan.
05 Day 4–5
The panel gets worked
Not a rate table — actual calls. Which desk will read the Schedule C carefully, which one has an overlay that kills a four-unit, which one is genuinely quick this month. This is the part you are paying for.
06 Day 5
Two or three options, side by side
With the trade written out in a sentence. Cheaper monthly against more interest over the term. Faster close against a bigger reserve. Lower rate against points you may not hold long enough to earn back.
07 Day 5–6
Pre-approval you can hand to a seller
Arithmetic on documents somebody read, not on numbers you said out loud. Rhode Island listing agents can tell the difference and increasingly ask.
A pre-qualification is not this.
08 Varies
You go and find a house
This is the part with no schedule attached to it. Sometimes it is a fortnight, sometimes it is eleven months. The pre-approval gets refreshed as things change.
09 Offer +1
Application in, appraisal ordered
The formal application, the disclosures, the appraisal order. On a condo or a mill building the association questionnaire goes out in the same week, not the fifth one.
10 Offer +7 to +25
Underwriting, and the conditions
Every file comes back with conditions. Most are documents. Some are questions about a deposit or a gap in employment, and those get answered by me with your input rather than forwarded to you as a demand.
11 Offer +26
Clear to close
The closing disclosure lands and there is a legally required waiting period before you sign. Read it against the estimate you were given. If a number moved, ask why; there is usually a real answer.
12 Offer +30 to +45
Closing, and then nothing
You sign, you get keys, and I go quiet. No cross-selling, no annual “just checking in” automation. If your rate becomes worth revisiting, you will hear from me once, with a reason.
Timing, honestly
Thirty to forty-five days, and what makes it longer
| What is in the file | Typical effect | Why |
|---|---|---|
| An ordinary single-family purchase | 30–40 days | Baseline |
| Two-to-four units | +5–10 days | Rent schedule, extra appraisal work, reserves |
| Self-employed income | +5–14 days | Returns get read line by line, often twice |
| Condominium | +3–12 days | The association has to answer a questionnaire on its own timetable |
| Non-warrantable condo | +10–20 days | A different lender, a different product, a different appetite |
| Purchase-rehab | +15–30 days | Contractor approval, scope review, subject-to appraisal |
Illustrative ranges for a demonstration site, not a commitment. Real timing depends on the lender, the appraiser’s calendar, the association, and how quickly documents come back.
Reach me directly
Start at stage one
Twenty-five minutes. No documents, no credit pull, no obligation on either side.
- Fastest(401) 555-0128Call or text. It rings on one phone.
- Writtennadia@botelho-mortgage.exampleReplies weekdays, usually within a couple of hours.
That validated cleanly.
On a real site this would now be in an inbox with a timestamp on it. Here it went nowhere — nothing was transmitted and nothing was written down.