Be Nice To Your Underwriters

Written By: Bonnie Wilt-Hild
Senior DE Underwriter & NAMP Instructor

Often I have support staff, loan officers and sometimes processors ask if there is anything they can get me. Lunch is a good example particularly at the end of the month when no one can seem to get out of the office. I think it’s very nice that they like to feed me especially because I love to eat but more importantly I think it’s great that support staff are seeking a way to make our life as underwriters a little easier in this market where almost every case seems to fall into the lets make a deal category or more plainly just really hard to work out.

So, I decided this week I would share a few things that would make most underwriters delirious when you consider the underwriter happy scale and will also make getting your cases out of underwriting and into closing less of a hassle.

On a personal note, I will share that food does really make me happy but that alone is not enough to push my glee button, I need processed files for that. Yep, files that have been processed from start to finish where I am actually able to render an underwriting decision even if I have to condition for a couple of things. It is very disheartening to pick up a file and begin underwriting it just to find out that you don’t have AUS findings, there isn’t evidence of sufficient funds to close, there is no appraisal and worse yet there are several items in the file that point to things like undocumented child support obligations, delinquent credit and collections that have not been addressed, excessive ratio’s that have not been supported with compensating factors and more.

From an underwriting standpoint, when we pick up cases in this condition we are not underwriting, we are processing and to generate a loan suspense with four pages of conditions simply means that we have to underwrite again once the conditions are received. Complicate things further and have a processor or loan officer provide the conditions two at a time and you will spend the entire day picking up and putting down the same file. This really impedes the underwriter’s ability to underwrite 5 to 7 loans a day which quite frankly is a comfortable level for most underwriters if the case has been adequately processed.

I do realize that processors are often times pushed by loan officers to get cases into underwriting but someone needs to explain to them that they are doing more harm than good when they insist that incomplete files go to underwriting. First off, when a case is suspended for multiple items the loan officer now puts themselves into a position where they may need to go back to the borrower several times for more documentation which just makes the borrower mad. Secondly, when the case is submitted and a real estate agent is made aware of this, they are expecting an approval. This typically provokes a real estate agent to schedule settlement. So now settlement is scheduled on a suspended loan that has 20 outstanding conditions, some of which may result in loan rejection and you have a borrower and real estate agent thinking the have a done deal.

Needless to say, when settlement gets pushed back once, twice or even three times, now you have business partners and clients who will relate their mortgage experience as a fiasco instead of an experience that was professional and pleasant. Remember everyone, underwriters can only get a case approved if they have the documentation necessary to approve loan.

So back to how to make us happy, really process the cases before you submit them to underwriting and loan officers, lay off the processors and let them do their jobs before the cases get slammed into underwriting just to be suspended. A fully processed case takes ½ hour to underwrite and maybe 15 minutes to clear conditions on, that means loan into closing in 45 minutes. A suspended loan has to be underwritten at least twice, sometimes three times depending on the number of suspense conditions and can take days if not weeks to get into closing. That is not only frustrating for production staff but also for the borrowers and other business partners and really makes your underwriters feel like jumping out of windows.

So that’s it, the way to your underwriters heart, this with say an occasional crab cake or perhaps cheesecake should do. As always, happy underwriting!

About the Writer. As an NAMP staff writer, Bonnie serves as a senior instructor for FHA Online University as well maintains a full-time job as Senior DE Underwriter for a major banking institution. If you would like to become a writer for NAMP, please email us at: blog@mortgageprocessor.org.

SOURCE: Published by NAMP Publishing Group, a division of the National Association of Mortgage Processors (http://www.MortgageProcessor.org)