You need to ask the bank. If you own the house, why wouldn't you be able to move in after the C of O is issued?

Certificate of occupancy is done through your township you are moving into. It has nothing to do with a mortgage. Basically it let's the township who is going to live in the house. That way they know who to send any info to or the police knows who lives there. I never had to pay for one. Since yours is a new build they probably will make sure all the inspections are done and passed.

No, you don't need to wait until the refi is complete before you move into the house unless that is some part of the original loan contract. We had the movers at our house one weekend and did our final closing the following Monday.

rrah: you moved into a house you didn't yet own?

Thanks everyone-confirmed with our lender that yes, we are allowed to move in with the COO in hand. I had no idea until my builder brought it to my attention today! We just assumed we'd have to complete the refi before we would get the keys. That's excellent news for us considering refi's are taking quite a long time these days.

One of the reasons for a 2 close loan is to get optimal interest rates. When you do a cons-perm loan you are limited to banks that will allow that C-P and you trust that they will five you a good market rate at the time of closure. Don't get me wrong, I did one this time but in the past have done the refi path. Always moved in before closure. BTW - paid higher interest rate because it was a refi so you can't really win. You always lose something with building on your own loan/land.

Now - CO does matter for closing a loan - at least a cons-perm loan. They were not happy with us converting before CO. We did eventually but it was a stressful hassle. Turns out they gave us the CO without an inspection being done - which wasn't done for a few weeks after we moved in.

It was some sort of site inspection that was really a check box. And don't get me started on the ROW inspection that we never did - even though we never touched the ROW. I later had an inspector want to fail the potential sidewalk portion of our driveway that was over 20 years old. It was a teardown and we used the old one. Now - the city could have required us to bring it up to code but that isn't an actual requirement.

Yes, our bank only offered the 2 close loan which is more money upfront since we will have to pay 2 closing costs. However, we will get much better rates and a lower final monthly payment with the refi than we would with a single-close loan. It's much more stressful to do it this way because if you lose your job or something goes wrong, your refi might not be approved. So far we are very lucky since my husband is an "essential employee" and I am self-employed but making good, steady money with clients even through the current crisis. We hope and expect it to stay that way...

Anyway, thanks again to all of you - I kind of wish our lender would've mentioned this to us from the beginning as we've been extremely stressed out assuming we had to wait until the refi. closed. Sheesh.

Meeshee1,

One further caution of a two step: although you might be able to get a lower interest rate at the time of closing than you would have with a one-time close, your new home will have to appraise to the minimum loan to value that will meet your expected mortgage size (i.e. 80%, 85%, 90%, etc.) otherwise, you may need to come up with more money. Example: at the time of construction loan start, the expected appraisal value of your yet to be built home was $400K, since your proposed new home was similar to ones sold in your surrounding area (square footage, amenities, finishes, etc), and they had recent sales of around $400K at that time. You were expecting an 80% L to V mortgage (i.e. mortgage of $320K) Now, 12 months later, the home sales in your area dropped to around $350K, so an 80% L to V mortgage would be $280K). The difference 320K -280K = $40K, which you would have to pay, or you would need to have an approximately 90% L to V mortgage to have the same monthly mortgage payment.

Of course, if the value of homes in your area have gone up since you began your build, this same math can work in your favor. Wishing it is the later versus the former for you. Best wishes and congrats on your new home.

Thank you! Yes, the appraisal is always the dark cloud hanging over our heads. For now, I think our market is fairly steady and we made some nice improvements (adding a deck, grading, etc) that will hopefully keep that value up a bit. I'm hearing that many appraisers are currently doing "drive by" appraisals only due to the virus. Our loan is conventional and Fannie and Freddie are actually encouraging it, so I am not sure how it will affect the final appraisal so we're hoping and praying for the best. :)