I've been doing this for eight years now. It has never been as difficult to get a mortgage loan application from the actual application to the closing table. When we get to the closing table and all parties are sitting around signing, it's pretty typical to beat up on the mortgage guy. It doesn't bother me at all to be the punching bag, but it does say something about the level of customer service that our clients must be feeling. So what's going on out there and how can we fix it?
If you ask any Real Estate Attorney or Realtor, they will tell you that there greatest frustrations are over mortgage contingency dates and getting documents to close in time to get final numbers to our customers. Not their only frustrations, just there greatest frustrations. As a loan officer, we concur. So, where's the disconnect?
During the underwriting process there are many documents that we have to hunt down in order to fully underwrite a mortgage application. Insurance, Condominium Documents, and Questionnaires, just to name a few. These documents typically don't come from one point of contact and there is no standard for how they look when you get them back. One insurance certificate doesn't necessarily look like another and a budget from one condo association will not look anything like it's next door neighbor. This is frustrating for everyone involved. The loan officer or processor will collect documents that look like they meet the underwriting criteria set forth in the guidelines only to have the document sent back because it is missing proper verbiage or authenticity. Some times these things can be caught, others, there was just a change in guidelines and the insurance industry just hasn't caught up yet.
The only way these days to insure a smooth transaction is to have all parties, Realtors, Attorney's, Insurance Agents and Loan Officers, working together to get all items necessary as early in the transaction as possible. That means providing the loan officer with the Declarations and By Laws during attorney review. Getting a good contact for either the Condominium Association or Management Company at the time of application. Ordering the Title Work in the first week of the transaction rather than waiting until there is a mortgage approval. Filling out Condo Questionnaires during attorney review when the 22.1 is also being requested. That way, if a document doesn't meet underwriting criteria, we know about it during the first underwrite, not when conditions are being sent over for final review.
I was having a conversation with an agent last week and she made a great point. The process that we were used to from contract to close no longer jives with what is happening in underwriting. She couldn't have been more right. We need to completely change the way we are requesting and providing the documents necessary to obtain a mortgage approval so that it syncs with how an underwriter needs to see these documents. Gone are the days of issuing a Clear to Close on a file and obtaining a Condo Insurance policy the day before closing. We need to get everyone on board to make for a smoother process and experience for our customers.
And if everything still goes wrong? Well, I'm almost always at the closing and I have very thick skin.
Joe Burke
Your Chicago Mortgage Guy
joe@yourchicagomortgageguy.com
773-742-6707
Joe -
excellent post on a real hot-button topic.
frankly, a great many loan officers i encounter do not even recognize these sorts of problems let alone express any interest in trying to alleviate client frustrations. (these guys are the ones that wait until the week of closing to ask for that condo questionaire, and NEVER show at the closing table... i wonder why?)
teamwork is indeed a critical component for successful closings.
regards,
Posted by: www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=742859973 | 2009.09.22 at 02:15 PM