Frequently asked questions

Email, text, or call us any day of the week (mortgageteam@hellotomo.com, 737-510-2523). Our weekday hours are from 8AM-8PM CST, Saturdays from 9AM-3PM CST, and Sundays from 11AM-5PM CST. We are closed on New Year’s Day, Martin Luther King Jr Day, Memorial Day, Juneteenth, Independence Day, Labor Day, Veteran’s Day, Thanksgiving Day, and Christmas Day. If you need us on Halloween, we’ll be there, likely wearing a costume.

Tomo Mortgage currently operates in:

• Alabama
• Arizona
• Arkansas
• California
• Colorado
• Connecticut
• District of Columbia
• Florida
• Georgia
• Idaho
• Iowa
• Illinois
• Louisiana
• Kansas
• Kentucky
• Maryland
• Michigan
• Minnesota
• Nebraska
• New Jersey
• North Carolina
• Ohio
• Oklahoma
• Oregon
• Pennsylvania
• South Carolina
• Tennessee
• Texas
• Virginia
• Washington
• Wisconsin

Lots of kinds. We support all customers with a credit score above 580.* Great singing voice is always a bonus.

If you don’t have a Social Security Number, give us a call at (737) 510-2523.

Our minimum down payment varies by loan type (e.g., conventional, FHA, VA), property type (e.g., single family), planned property use (e.g., primary residence, vacation home), and credit score. Check around, and you’ll see that it’s really low. For example, our VA loans start at 0% down payment, our conventional loans start at 3% down payment, and our FHA loans start at 3.5% down payment.

Before you sell off your vintage spoon collection, know that you can use many different types of assets to fund your down payment, including:

• Savings, checking, or CD accounts
• Stocks and bonds
• Money from the sale of your current home
• Crypto, assuming it can be converted to US dollars prior to close
• Retirement accounts, including 401k and loans against them
• Gifts from relatives (thanks, Aunt Sue!)

Have another type of asset you’re looking to use? We're happy to discuss.

Yep! We offer down payment assistance to eligible customers buying in Connecticut. We hope to have similar programs in other states soon.

Loan estimates are standard forms lenders use to tell you the cost of a mortgage loan, including rates and closing costs. They also happen to be great tools to use in comparing costs across lenders. The trick is to know what to look for. We’ve prepared a guide to help you on this front, explaining what costs vary by lender, what costs vary based on your choice of other service providers, and what costs don’t vary at all. Armed with this information, you will be able to choose the lender that offers you the best overall value.

Rates are definitely not one size fits all. We work with you to understand your goals and help you find a rate that suits. The rates available to you will vary based on:

• Loan product (e.g., conventional, FHA)
• Credit score and credit history
• Geography
• Loan amount
• Down payment
• Property use (e.g., primary residence)
• Property type (e.g., single family)
• Time - rates change every day and sometimes multiple times a day!

Once we know what rates you’re eligible for, we’ll help you navigate the tradeoffs between a par rate and rates that include points or credits. For more on that topic skip down a few questions!

Yep. We have your back. As soon as you’re under contract, a Loan Advisor will talk to you about locking your rate in to protect yourself from rate increases.

We want to protect you from high rates, not hold you back from a better deal. If rates go up after you’ve locked, it doesn’t affect you at all! If rates go down, your Loan Advisor can work with you to ensure your rate is as competitive as possible. It's the best of both worlds.

Points and credits are like knobs you can adjust to change your rate and closing costs. Say you want to lower your interest rate, you can pay more upfront in the form of points. If you want to lower your closing costs, you can pay a higher interest rate later in the form of credits. The longer you plan to stay in your home, the more likely it is that points, as opposed to credits, make sense for you. But the math is different on every loan, and we’re happy to help crunch the numbers for you.

Absolutely. We offer mortgages with points, mortgages with credits, and par mortgages (which have neither points nor credits). We're always up front about which is which, and we help you find what’s right in your situation.

Put simply, it’s our commitment to getting you a great rate. If you find a better deal, we’ll match it, guaranteed. We call it Price Match, but you can call it “money in my pocket.”

Give us a valid, comparable Loan Estimate doc, dated within one business day of submission to Tomo Mortgage, with the lender info. That’s it. Price Match can be used once per loan and can be used on primary residences only. See our full terms and conditions here.

It’s first-of-its-kind coverage that gives you certainty that you won’t be scrambling to bring more cash to the closing even if the appraisal falls short.

Get pre-approved and then work with a Tomo Mortgage partner agent who will verify your property address before you make an offer. You’ll also need a 10% or higher down payment. For full terms and conditions see here.

Not to worry. Tomo Mortgage Appraisal Coverage protects you from having to bring more cash to the close if that happens. Same APR, cash-to-close, and monthly payment - guaranteed.

Whether to waive the appraisal contingency is an important decision your real estate agent can help you make. Even with Appraisal Coverage, there are still good reasons to consider keeping your appraisal contingency. For instance if the appraisal comes back too low, you might not want to go through with the deal. Or maybe you would want to bargain for a price reduction. The appraisal contingency would give you those options. And it’s always good to have options.

A Tomo Mortgage underwritten pre-approval gives everyone confidence in what you can afford. It’s a complete assessment of your ability to buy a home, including a review of your credit, assets, liabilities, income, and employment information. It’s not just a loan officer’s opinion of your eligibility; it’s underwriting’s signoff on your application. (Underwriting is the function that makes the final call on a loan application.) We make the process a snap by syncing accounts to instantly verify your information, letting us pre-approve you in a fraction of the time.

Indeed! That’s one of the great things about our pre-approvals. We make it easy for you to edit your pre-approval application any time, day or night, so that you can explore what would happen if you, for example, increased your down payment or held onto your existing property and rented it out. Ready to make an offer? You can reduce the amount on your pre-approval letter to match your offer to avoid showing your hand to the seller. Just log in and click “Adjust home price.” Make that letter work for you.

A hard credit check is a critical part of getting a mortgage. It helps us confirm your eligibility and without it we can’t determine the type of mortgage product and interest rate you’ll qualify for. The impact of a mortgage hard credit check is low (typically 3-8 points points), is temporary (typically 12 months), and is usually the same no matter how many other mortgage hard credit checks you get in a 30 day period.

Pre-approval letters expire after 120 days. If your financial situation changes before then, you may also need an updated letter. The good news is that it’s easy to renew them, and we’re here to help you do so any time.

It depends. Mortgage rates change every day, and rates will most likely have changed by the time you go under contract. Here at Tomo Mortgage, we're different because we give you the power to lock your rate and hang onto that number on your pre-approval letter. Talk to your loan advisor about our Lock & Shop option to make that happen!

Of course. We know one person can’t whistle a symphony. We’ll supply your Loan Advisor with your agent’s name and contact info early on so we can keep them updated as you progress with your application. We’re one team after all.

Nope. Nada. Tomo Mortgage does not charge lender fees. No origination fees, processing fees, mystery fees, fee fees, or the like. No junk fees period. That means choosing Tomo Mortgage saves you an average of $2,000 at closing. In the rare instance where Tomo Mortgage has partnered with another lender to bring you a special loan product, you may be subject to the other lender’s fees.

Your closing costs reflect the full upfront cost of purchasing your home. You want this estimate to be as accurate as possible to make sure you have the right funds set aside to buy your house. We usually see closing costs that are around 3% of the loan but your exact closing costs will be based on your loan and your home. Standard closing costs include:

• Points or credits, if applicable, as determined when you select your rate
• Third-party costs (things we’re required to order on your behalf like title and appraisal)
• Pre-paid costs (interest and taxes for the remainder of your move-in month, before you make your first mortgage payment)
• Escrow payments, if applicable

We’re crystal clear about your rates and costs the entire way through so you’re always in the know. Once you find your home and submit your loan application, we’ll give you a Loan Estimate, a formal form that outlines all your closing costs. If anything changes, we’ll update you. We’ll also send you a closing disclosure 3 days before your closing date with an itemized breakdown so you know exactly where every penny is going.