The most common rate lock period for a home mortgage is 30 days, although you may get longer or shorter lock terms.
Also remember when you are refinancing your home you will have a 3 day right to rescind your loan. This will delay your funding by 3 days compared to a purchase or a non owner occupied home that will find the same day.
Purchase transactions will normally take a little longer to finance from the beginning of the application process until closing than refinance transactions will take. With purchase transactions there are multiple parties involved, the buyer and the seller, whereas with a refinance there is only yourself and/or your spouse.
Other things that can take time are getting the appraisal done, getting payoffs back, and underwriting the loan.
If you qualify for a no documentation loan program, it may be possible to go from application to closing in 5 to 10 business days.
You have some control over some of the biggest delays in the application process.
First, getting requested documentation quickly to your loan officer is essential. A day or two delay when you have 1 or 2 weeks until closing may not seem like a big deal. However, your application may be sitting waiting for that documentation before it can move to the next step in the process.
Second, with a refinance, your previous mortgage company and any credit card companies you will be paying off may not be eager to stop earning interest off of you. So they may be slow in giving out information concerning the payoff amounts on your accounts. Sometimes, your loan officer may think these companies will release this information more quickly to you. If you are asked to call and request this information, please do so quickly. Some companies often take 10 days or more to release this information.
Always remember that there are outside factors that neither your loan officer, nor yourself can control. Your loan officer will be doing whatever he/she can do to get the loan closed as soon as possible, but there are third party forces at work. The underwriting may take longer than anticipated, large sums of money need to be wired, and this industry works through technology. Computers, faxes, emails, wire transfers. As we all know, technology as a general rule speeds things up, but sometimes hiccups happen, and things slow down. Be patient, and be confident, your mortgage professional is working for the same goal as you. To get your loan closed when you need it closed by.
Your particular situation can affect the time from application to closing. Bankruptcies, charge offs, liens on the home, gaps in employment, missing documentation, condo association issues, title issues, appraisal issues, difficult to justify income, etc. may or may not affect timing. Discussing any items ahead of time with your mortgage professional can help everyone get to closing faster.
Sometimes a loan can take longer because not all information was fully disclosed to the Mortgage Professional from the beginning. If there is a lien on the property being refinanced that should be disclosed because it will need to be paid off. Often it can take some time to locate the lien holder and get payoff information.
Depending on how fast you can provide your mortgage broker with the documentation he or she needs, application to closing can be as fast as 7-14 days.
Present your mortgage professional with as much documentation as possible initially. It is much easier to to have "too much" information rather than "too little" information. Think of it like dressing for the weather: it is always easier to take something off rather than go home to put some thing additional on.