Ouch... This one really hurt

[Zac Vaughan]

I have been working with a lender for the past 2 months now. I do not have the best credit(work in progress) and he told me he could get me pre-approved for $250,000 with 3.5% down(FHA), but I have to improve my credit by paying off debt.

I agreed and paid off just under $10,000 of debt from my business income. After getting a property under contract, it turns out we can not use my business income as proof of income and now I can only get approved for $170,000. 

After getting another property under contract, I received a message from my lender saying due to my debt to income ratio, the lender is NOW requesting 10% down instead of the original 3.5% AND the lender was still going to charge points. A $148k purchase was going to cost me $13,000 and that was just with 3.5% down, not the new 10%. 

If I would have known I needed 10% down in the first place I would have never started looking for a property. 

2 months of my time and my agent's time were completely wasted. Not only that but I spent an additional $4,000 in appraisals, inspections, and earnest that I will not be getting back. 

I told that lender I will not be using him. Any advice on how to avoid this in the future?