Attorney Richard D. Vetstein. writes today about new loan procedures that will begin June 1st. It has never been a good idea to go buy furniture on credit a week before closing. Now, more than ever, borrowing mistakes like that can cost you your home loan.

Fannie Mae’s new Loan Quality Initiative (LQI) mandates become effective on June 1, 2010, and this will definitely curtail borrowers’ spending before their home closings. The June 1 changes are part of a new effort by mortgage giant Fannie Mae to cut down on slipshod underwriting by lenders and frauds by borrowers. Fannie's so-called "loan quality initiative" will require lenders not only to pull two credit reports for each mortgage transaction but to perform additional verifications of borrower occupancy plans for the property, Social Security numbers and Individual Taxpayer Identification Numbers, among other changes. These last minute credit checks could result in a closing delay, pricing adjustment, or, worst, loan approval cancellation.

The last-minute credit report will be designed to find out whether a borrower has obtained — or even shopped for — new debt between the date of the loan application and the closing. If borrowers have made applications for credit of any type — for furnishings and appliances for the new house, a car, landscaping, a home equity line, a new credit card — the closing could be put on hold pending additional research by the lender.

If you've taken out new loans that are sizable enough to affect the debt-to-income ratio calculations used in your original mortgage approval, the deal could fall through. The added debt load could render you ineligible for the mortgage because you suddenly appear unable to handle the payments without a strain on your household budget.