Part 2: Show me the money!

Now that the process is 3 weeks away from completion, I wish I had found these articles from Realtor.com sooner (esp this one)...

But then we didn't foresee we'd actually make an offer on a home when we did and actually get a signed contract on said home less than 24 hours later...

#7 - Have enough money in the bank for earnest money, etc.
Think expenses only occur at closing? No sirree. With the offer/contract, usually comes a check from the buyer as earnest money (basically, "I'm serious about buying your house so here's money to prove it").
Also, in our situation, we have to pay the appraiser before he can conduct his appraisal (our lender said this will be credited back to us at closing).

#8 - Have good financial documentation
We've been asked for proof of our liquid assets (sources of down payment) as part of the loan application, about 2-4 months worth of statements for each asset.

#9 - Meet with your lender
This one we didn't really do since we're out of state, but I wish we did just for my own peace of mind. I think it helps to meet the people who are managing the money and making sure escrow closes successfully. It took a lot of faith to choose the lender we chose. Granted, they're listed with pretty high ranking on Lending Tree and are an 'approved' FHA lender according to the HUD gov site. Plus the appraiser they are using is FHA approved as well. We'll see at closing though... but they've been great to us so far and have really involved us in regards to the day-to-day status of the loan.