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Underwriters are the power players in a loan. My first experience was as a loan officer for a national bank. Our underwriter was horrible. I will call her Karen. Karen hated her job and as a result hated us. She was tough, as it appears in this picture of Sheree. Actually, Sheree is having fun, Karen was not fun. But having to deal with Karen was a great learning experience, so I am grateful for her.
Karen looked for trouble. Most underwriters do, but Karen was to the extreme. I remember a loan that had to be approved by Friday. It was Friday morning and Karen found something she didn’t like, a window in the appraisal she wanted to be replaced and we had no record of that being completed. The home was over an hour away from the office, so off I went. Karen would allow me to confirm that the replacement was completed.
On the way I received a phone call from my son, who I hadn’t seen in ages. “Dad. I am at the airport, on my way to Alaska, come and visit me” I had two choice, my son or the window. I chose my son, expecting to find Monday morning to find that Karen didn’t let the loan be funded. As I went into the office I hesitantly asked and to be deliriously happy it funded.
Here are the lessons I learned. First: do not work with a lender from a bank. They have too much power. When picking a lender always know about their underwriter. always. After Karen I eventually quit to work with a mortgage broker. I found a lender that allowed me to sit down with her on tough loans. We would work through the conditions together. It was a great relationship. My Utah lender doesn’t do that for me, but he will review every tough file with me. It is virtually the same. I have never had a file denied. Not as a loan officer, not with my own company. You should know up front the approval result.
Typically, the automated underwriting that is used will provide what we all need to know to become approved.