Work with a loan officer that is experienced in construction lending.

Any loan officer should be able refinance your current loan or get you a simple purchase mortgage, but getting a construction loan is much more complex. The more construction loan experience your loan officer has, the quicker you can close and start building. If your loan officer only has a few years in the business, with little or no construction lending experience, you could be waiting months and months to close, if you ever close.

Take a moment and go to this website, http://www.nmlsconsumeraccess.org/. This is the public look-up site for the Nationwide Mortgage Licensing System. Every mortgage company and loan officer must register here.

Input your loan officer’s NMLS number, mine is 134090. Click on their name, on the next screen and you can find out if they have any regulatory actions against them. Next, click on View Employment History. There you can find out if your Loan Officer was writing loans a few years ago or flipping burgers.

Jerry Thomas, Construction Loan Officer
NMLS #134090