At first, you might feel overwhelmed by all of the questions that your lender will. Then, you might be frustrated by the amount of paperwork that he or she will want to look at to verify your answers to those questions.

Here at Public Home Mortgage, Inc. we try to keep things as simple as possible. Below, you will see a basic list of things that you may need to get qualified:

Employment History: For this, you will generally need to account for the two most recent years of your work history. On top of this, you will generally need a current pay stub and a W-2. If you work nontraditionally or do not have this stuff, do not hesitate to apply, though, as there are several different mortgage programs available that do not require this documentation.

Social Security Number: You will at some point throughout the process need to provide us with the social security number of anyone who will be considered a borrower on the loan. Remember, we will never share this information with anyone other than a prospective lender.

Asset Information: Even if you're not putting down a down payment, we will want to verify how much you have in liquid and non-liquid assets. To do this, we will want to know how much you have in checking/savings accounts, stocks/bonds, retirement plans, etc. In the beginning of the process, we will not ask for account numbers or account holders, but will be glad to work off of the estimates you provide.

Liabilities and FICO Score: Finally, we will need to examine your credit profile and know how much monthly debt you currently carry. Knowing this will help us determine your maximum monthly mortgage payment. Obviously, the easiest way for us to determine this is by doing a credit check, but if you are applying online and do not feel comfortable providing your social security number over the internet, please just include an estimate of your monthly bill total in the spaces provided. We will work with that information to get the ball rolling.

There are many factors that go into mortgage qualification beyond what is listed here, and we may need to delve into that as we progress towards closing, but in most cases this is the basic information that matters. We will try to keep the process as easy as we can for you, and we will always keep you informed about your loan's progress.

Even if you are missing one of the aforementioned pieces of information or feel that what you have may not be enough, you should not hesitate to place an application with us. Remember, there are probably many people out there in similar situations as you; and, therefore, there is probably a mortgage program designed to help you navigate any of your obstacles.