Between approval and funding

Your job. On loans that follow Fannie Mae's rules, the lender must verify your employment within 10 business days before closing, or within 120 days if you are self-employed.

Your credit. Lenders may check your credit again or watch for new accounts. A new car payment raises your debt-to-income ratio and can undo an approval. A lower score can change your pricing.

Your documents. Pay stubs, statements and credit reports become outdated. If closing is delayed, expect to send newer ones.

If something changes, tell us right away. Changes are easier to work through when we hear about them early.

1. Early on, pick two trusted contacts, such as your agent and your title officer, and talk through how closing funds will move by phone or in person.
2. Before sending money, call the title company at the number on your contract and confirm the account name and number.
3. Treat any change in instructions as a warning sign, however urgent or official it looks.
4. Do not email account numbers or other financial details.
5. After you send, call to confirm the money arrived.

If something goes wrong, call your bank right away and ask it to recall the wire, then report it to the FBI at ic3.gov. Speed matters.

On a purchase, you sign, the lender sends the loan money to the title company, the deed records, and the seller is paid. Your keys come at the possession date and time in your contract.

A refinance of the home you live in works differently. You have until midnight of the third business day after signing to cancel, and Saturdays count. The loan does not fund, and your old loan is not paid off, until that window passes. Purchase loans do not have this right to cancel.