Underwriting and Self Doubt

When I returned home from work today the fully executed purchase contract was waiting in the mail for me (finally). This means that the underwriting of my loan has begun.

For those of you not in the mortgage business, allow me to explain underwriting for a minute:
Underwriting is simply the process by which a processor obtains all the relevant financial information from the prospective borrower in order to make a 'risk' decision to lend the money for the purchase or not. Ultimately, the underwriter is looking for the 3 C's: Capacity (can they afford the payments?), Credit (will they pay you back?), Collateral (is the property worth lending against?).

Capacity is the biggest of the three; an underwriter takes your gross total monthly expenses (projected housing expenses as well) and divides that number by your total gross monthly income, this is called 'DTI' or a Debt-to-income ratio (expressed as a percentage). A 30 year conforming mortgage has a hard cap of a DTI at 50% meaning your total regular month expenses can not exceed 50% of your monthly income (however, borrowers with shitty credit scores have a much lower allowed DTI).

At times I have an incredible amount of self doubt, I think this may be a hold over from the tribulations of my youth. I told my older co worker how I was "excited and terrified" at the prospect of this purchase he opined that when he was young and purchased his first house he felt the same. I believe this sensation of terror is a by product of committing to a very long financial relationship with a piece of property in a certain neighborhood. For renters, this sensation is the same as that which was felt by the sailors of Columbus' voyage, they are leaving known surroundings for a vast ocean of unknowns. Ultimately it's a journey that we all must take at some point (that is if Congress doesn't destroy the Secondary Mortgage Market) it will be important in the coming weeks and months to control this doubt and prepare for a new stage of life.

After all, wouldn't be funny in ten years to look back at this post and think "I don't know why I ever thought this wouldn't work out?"