If you are thinking about applying for a home loan this year, here is some important news: Beginning June 1, your lender is likely to order a second full credit screening immediately before closing. The last-minute credit report will be designed to find out whether you've obtained, or even shopped for, new debt between the date of your loan application and the closing.

 

If you've made applications for credit of any type, for furnishings and appliances for the new house, a car, landscaping, a home equity line, a new credit card, the closing could be put on hold pending additional research by the lender. If you've taken out new loans that are sizable enough to affect the debt-to-income ratio calculations used in your original loan approval, the deal could fall through. The added debt load could render you ineligible for the loan because you suddenly appear unable to handle the payments without a strain on your household budget.

 

Fannie's "loan quality initiative" will require lenders not only to pull two credit reports for each transaction but to perform additional verifications of borrower occupancy plans for the property, Social Security numbers and Individual Taxpayer Identification Numbers, among other changes.