Why Your Loan Officer Matters
Other Trends – Loan Professionals, Underwriters and Appraiser… Or more commonly referred to “Why Your Loan Officer Matters” It used to be that you could just fill out an online app and if you had A+ credit the loan was a slam dunk. However, in today’s market, this is no longer the case. The world of finance now includes conversations with Underwriters and appraisers and many times your loan professional may not know exactly how to navigate that.
Who Will Help Manage Appraisers?
Let’s start with Appraisers. They may seem benign enough but we previously wrote that they may be the most powerful persons in real estate. They determine the value and now many are becoming defacto inspectors. (You can read about the issues with values on the other post) They may not say this overtly but somewhere along the line someone is asking is them to inspect homes while they do their appraisal. They might say, “that door doesn’t close properly – suggest a structural engineer to inspect,” or perhaps, “there is a stain on ceiling – suggest licensed professional to inspect.” All of this leaves the underwriter guessing as to how to clear these items so that a would-be investor will buy this loan.
Who Will Help Manage The Underwriters?
It’s not all Appraisers, it’s also underwriters. The above is from an actual underwriter. Instead of calling the appraiser out for the bad report they will force buyers and sellers to jump through hoops in order to satisfy the vague statement. It could be that the door could be fixed with a screwdriver or that the stain was mentioned in the seller’s disclosure as a previously leak fixed. That would require too much effort or to give them the benefit of the doubt, it could be that they aren’t capable of making any sort of decisions.
Intentional Loan Officers
So it all comes back to the loan professional. Sure you can and should inspect the company a loan officer works for, it makes a difference. The best person in the world isn’t going to help you close on time with Quicken Loans or Wells Fargo, but it won’t do you any good to pick the best company with a slacker. If you are a buyer, you’re loan officer’s job is to be the fixer and communicator. Their job title and key result areas are just about collecting apps and closing loans, but in order to do that they need to fix the loan for you. That means communicating with the underwriter or holding an appraiser accountable. Some mortgage folks won’t do this or can’t. If this is your loan officer then I’m sorry, it’s time for a new one.
Some questions to know if you have the right loan officer team –
- Are you located in Georgia? – (This would eliminate Quicken)
- What is your underwriting turn around time (Good answer – 24 hours or less. Movement Mortgage has 6 hours or less for example)
- At what point do you send your application to the underwriter (not processor) – (Correct Answer: in the beginning, even before the home is selected)
- What happens if you have an issue with an appraisal? (Here, most “we try” answers would be ok, but a bad answer is, “we’re not allowed to talk to the appraiser.”)
So you can see why your loan officer matters so much. Luckily, the Jarvis Team has teamed up with Movement Mortgage among others to provide a level of accountability to your loan process.
Related Real Estate Resources:
