Earning Online from Panama

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Yesterday I received the this simple question from K.S. who lives in California. You should know I get this question over and over. It’s become a night mare to me because there is no reason for it to be such a frustrating reality to so many people applying for a mortgage. Here’s the question:

“how long do i have to wait for underwriting???? i have been waiting week after week. he said completion review would be complete the 19th after last week he said 48 hrs .. last message he sent said he would know more on the 19th …gr”

Answer:

Off the cuff, if you have high credit scores with lots of assets and the loan is run through DU with no issues, it can take less than a week. An FHA/VA loan will always take at least 1.5 weeks in underwriting. Any loan will take longer in underwriting if the loan package wasn’t processed correctly and is delivered to the underwriter incomplete. This is more common than we would like. Time in underwriting can take as little as a week or up to six (6) weeks.

I don’t know what the issues are on your loan or what type of loan you are qualifying for. However, your loan officer does!

The problem of time is usually issue of “when it was REALLY submitted” to the underwriters or what issues still need to be resolved. The loan officer you are working with really needs to be totally up front with you. If you suppect he is not, ask to speak with his broker or manager.

This is a serious issue. You need to be given the facts and kept in the loop as things change. Ask exactly when it was submitted to the underwriter. If it has been more than two weeks, you have a right to know exactly why. Ask for documentation. It’s your mortgage and remember you are paying them a lot of money to broker it.

Good Luck, Connie

I found out during the conversation with K.S. that the company she is doing business with is one of the largest Lenders in the US. I also found out she is applying for an FHA loan and in all fairness these loans do take a longer in underwriting.

I’ve been in the business for a long time and have pretty much seen it all. I know often times an incomplete loan package is submitted to underwriters. I know that there can be issues with appraisals or titles that can take time to correct. Sometimes a simple VOE will take longer than it should. Sometimes the borrower’s file may be weak in some areas and the underwriter may ask for more documentation. They have the authority to do that.

More often than we like, the loan package doesn’t qualify under that particular lenders guidelines so the loan officer starts sending it out to numerous other lenders while he literally prays that one of these lenders will approve it out of the kindness of their heart or, just maybe that their guidelines are not as tight. We have all been there and every now and then it works. However, at this point it is usually a lost cause, but we can’t let it go because we are heart broken for the borrower and we find ourselves in a state of denial.

If you are in the business you know that all these scenarios are reality and do take time. OK, so here is the issue I have with all this. This is why it angers me so: While all this is going on the borrower is left in the dark.

Most borrows don’t understand all the steps we go through or the documentation process. But it is their loan be it a good one or not. They are paying a lot of money for this process. We owe it to them to keep them informed about any problems or issues that arise. They are part of the process. They have a right to know and if they don’t understand then we must explain it so they do. Our avoidance of the issue and reluctance to inform the borrower puts them through a tremendous amount of stress and anxiety.

Borrowers, people, you and I, … all expect to be treated with dignity and respect. We expect honesty from the people we do business with and we expect the people we are doing business with to have integrity and compassion. Pretty simple, huh? So why don’t people get it right?

Borrowers have a right to know and the loan officer or company has an obligation to keep them informed.

This is so simple that I can’t help but get de-com-boober-ated when people just don’t get it right.