What Does the Underwriter Do When Buying a House | What Happens During Underwriting

hey this is shahida hill helping you confidently buy your first home i'm so excited to bring you keisha gaskin from homestar financial the xander teen and she's going to tell us all about the underwriting process today so you know after you are pre-approved for your mortgage and then you find a house and you're under contract then your loan goes to underwriting for them to really approve your financing so she's going to tell us all about that process how it works i have about seven questions i'm going to ask her but i'm going to allow her to introduce herself to us right now hi you guys my name is keisha gaskin i am a loan officer assistant with the xander team out here in homestar um in douglasville and i will answer hopefully all of your underwriting questions today as well as giving you a little bit more insight on some other things a little bit about myself i've been on both sides of the fence i come with sitting on site on new construction i come with a being a former realtor and now i'm on the lending side so hopefully i can really give you a full ram of what you can expect okay very good and it's good that she's been on both sides so she kind of can anticipate on the lending side on the sales side so she's a great resource so the first question just do a basic um you know explanation of what is underwriting like what is it underwriting basically is a process that we kind of refer to of someone reviewing the loan um a third party so to speak reviewing the loan guidelines and your documents to make sure that you meet all guidelines before you receive the final approval for your loan okay so what's the difference between automated underwriting and desktop underwriting and sometimes you see you hear those terms automated underwriting or desktop underwriting what's the difference so really your automated underwriting and desktop is pretty much similar it's just a different um automated system but typically we can put input your information in the computer and run it allocate it for a particular loan program the computer knows the guidelines and per your basic information um that would be your simple credit report and your liabilities your debt to income ratio because of course you have your income and a review of your credit report it takes that information in the computer it compares it and hits the guidelines that it knows for that long program and then it tells us yes you are pre-approved and what we need to get from you to uh make sure that you adhere to the pre-approval okay good so you're saying desktop is pretty much the same thing desktop and they're both computer generated desktop is exactly they're both computer generated it's just a matter of just um they're different types of um computer programs um and that would kind of make it through desktop underwriting automated systems um though that would kind of make it the difference okay thank you all in all they're all uh computer generated okay good the next question is how many underpaid so when i think of underwriting like i think okay they've already done the computer stuff then the file is going to an actual human being to look at that's the way i think of it but you can correct me if i'm wrong so how many underwriters do you have like on a team like how many people are underwriters um and um and i was gonna say do all lenders so like on your team are you all using this does everybody in homestar financial use a whole group of underwriters or do you have one underwriter assigned to you like explain like who is the underwriter um the other writer really is supposed to be this um kind of mystery person so to speak someone you don't know um and who does not know of you um but it is someone it's a team of people um so you do have a and basic underwriter someone who may be kind of new but just knows exactly what they need to get and then maybe when they believe that um they have it but it's not quite black and white it's a little bit kind of grayish then you have someone who can be over them who've been a little bit more experienced and kind of knows a little bit more detail of the investor that uh the loan is for and pretty much the situation uh the documents they have a little bit more experience so then you have someone over them and you have maybe about three tiers when it comes to an underwriting team okay so it's a whole team so when my file when i'm under contract and you say i'm in underwriting my file has been submitted to a team of people to look at exactly it is submitted to a person from a team so um usually we're not sure um who may receive the foul for underwriting and that that's pretty much um the whole purpose of having the underwriter is that you have again that third party who does not know of anything any outside sources they don't know how um you bent over backwards to get those bank statements they don't know you know how um before you were able to make the deposit for your earnest funds you know you had to you had a car accident you know they don't know any of that that we kind of have that heart for and they don't know any of your story they're just looking at paperwork and they're going by black and white what's written on this guideline here and what you have presented to them that's it so we typically don't know who it is until uh we get notification of what you need what you need after they've reviewed the file right so they look at the file and they're saying i you know after they've looked at everything they come back with conditions typically right they're like okay well we need this and this you know this is not that clear but we'll get into that too all right so this is question number three what is the underwriter looking for that they might not that you might not have asked for as like as a lender what is something that they may ask for but that the lender did not ask for uh they may want uh we may have a copy of your tax returns they may very well want particular transcripts they would they may want um a signed copy from the irs they may want to see not just your w-2 but they may want to also see your business or your personal taxation so it's just some things that we're just not sure of that let's say you have a deposit um and we don't know of that deposit but it shows up when the underwriter reviews your account and they may have to document where that deposit came from um so there are other just kind of detail they get into the details in the nitty-gritty that we particularly may not necessarily have to um or may not be aware um that we need to and that's typically what the case is um usually and it's not necessarily that the information is not disclosed it's just that it's not thought upon from um probably either side um to kind of know those t's across those teams because we have that pre-approval gotcha um so question number four why don't okay so now in this market right now it's so competitive right so especially for buyers trying to get their offers approved so a lot of the brokers are saying well go through and get your files underwritten ahead of time so you can close faster like get your files before you're under contract go ahead and put the client through underwriting so if anything does come up you can deal with it ahead of time um and i know all lenders don't do that so you can say what you guys do at home star do you underwrite files but why would why would some lenders go ahead and underwrite someone and then some lenders say no we'll wait til you're under contract um well really it's just a matter of courtesy i mean to be true to be truthful of the matter um we all as a lender we know that even if your foul is underwritten it doesn't necessarily mean that you are going to make it to the closing table and therefore we have put forth a lot of time and energy from a different level of people to underwrite a foul um and then it may not close and be of reasons uh that have nothing to do with the loan itself maybe they decided uh the inspection report just didn't go well and they didn't want to proceed with the purchase um maybe they could not come to terms um through an agreement with the uh with the seller um there are other reasons and then at that point we now have a foul that has gone through underwriting and doesn't make it to the closing table and we have put a lot of effort and energy from a few different people on that one foul and it's almost um a waste of time and energy right and i do understand that and that was my understanding of it as well when some lenders are like no wait till they're under contract because if that file doesn't close y'all wasted time and energy like you said putting them through underwriting then they terminate the agreement or they don't find a house or they you know they change their mind about working yeah there are also um other things that come up let's just say for instance um it just takes a little bit more time for you to find at home and um your approval expires you'll have to go through that process again so you know they're just there different causes and different reasons and usually when you're working with your lender and and your lender is working with your realtor we can kind of make that call together okay to see if you want to go ahead and put them through underwriting ahead of time yeah okay absolutely to kind of see whatever it is that we need to do um if we want to send that valve through underwriting all right our next question is and i think i try to keep track of them but i number them differently so one two three four i think it's number four do underwriters pull your credit again so in the pre-approval process they pulled your credit so they can pre-approve you but do the underwriters go ahead and pull it again um it really depends sometimes it may be necessary maybe you have an expired report um so it really just kind of depends on your timing with your home search and when they last pulled and had a review of your credit um do you understand that the underwriter does and is aware that your credit reporting uh will change from month to month you know we may have had no debt to begin with um from your credit cards and you were excited and you purchased all the things for your home and now you have a lot of debt um but you had not closed it and it's time to make sure that like the things that we put on our application is correct and that's what the underwriter does so when she does her review because your report is past 30 days we have now we have to pull a new report and it shows your new debt so that's why um yeah it does happen and that's why it could happen okay good to know now maybe in percentage or something like that i'm not gonna number these questions what because some of the time you're answering some of them so i'm taking them away um what percentage or you could just estimate uh loans that get approved go through underwriting and then the loan gets denied do you have like a percentage you think that where they're approved and then it goes to underwriting they're like no we can't close as well you know it's funny that you say um that you asked that because i think it it's just it's variant that that percentage varies depending on your um your mortgage loan officer you know your loan officer um typically that's when the loan officer comes into play um from my experience here um with the xander king what i found is that typically we if we go into any roadblocks your loan officer has to know the guidelines they have to know and be able to go and and read the fine print to see if there's an exception um that can be made in your circumstance um by maybe a loophole um maybe there's something that you have provided that can satisfy what the underwriter is asking for but that's just what you provided is not what the underwriter is used to seeing um so that percentage is going to vary based upon your loan officer's knowledge but what i can say from my experience is that typically we have very few loans that stop in the underwriting process or that's kicked out we may very well have to extend a closing date before we um stop and have to kind of push out a loan altogether um it happens unfortunately um but i would say it's a very small percentage um due to the fact that we typically know the guidelines and kind of can either battle and and provide something different that can satisfy the underwriters needs or um we'll figure it out or either you know that small amount that kind of gets away from us but i say that probably happens maybe about one out of ten um really and that's just to not two i would say it's probably a little less than that quite frankly um because you really try to you know on the front and avoid that and try to make sure that you're asking those right questions right absolutely and uh when you know and that's the whole point of just um of um knowing when to when to go into underwriting and and that's you know sometimes it's a matter of it's just not ready to move forward because we need to get some other documentation together before we do that so okay so when they they say because i have um i have quite a few files right now and like five of them are in underwriting in underwriting right so when they say they're in underwriting or in line for underwriting do the underwriters just take things in the order they're received or do they say well this one closes next week i need you to rush this one or this one closes sooner like is there a first come first serve or is it in like priority order based on the closing date um well it's not the underwriter's uh responsibility to accept the foul or to receive a foul within a certain time frame due to an expected closing date that that is not the under underwriter's responsibility so the underwriter is going to accept the foul in the order in which it's in queue to be received um that is a different um responsibility and that's kind of your processor and that's kind of before you get to the underwriter so you know that's part of that teamwork that you have that would be set up with your um your loan officer um but that's not their responsibility so sometimes um you can put a rush um on on an underwriter to review a foul because a closing date is coming up and it's not in your favor to have that rush you just have to know you just have to know um your fouls what you're working with and and your team that you have set up to be able to kind of get those files together before you get to the underwriter and that's the whole point of the matter um typically the underwriter can be looked at as someone who will discover a reason for you not to have a loan so we are the ones who actually put in all the information for you to have the loan and they just look at and they say hey you're right everything is here and this person is good to go we can we can definitely um feel safe that uh we can move forward with them um so that pretty much it's kind of like they're the um the tsa so to speak make sure you can get on the plane like they make a short ride everything you need that's a good um analogy for it i guess you have to make sure that you pat down and you can get you could buy that house right that's right you mentioned a new person a processor so could you explain the difference between like the i guess the the process between the lender the processor and the underwriter like what role does the processor play um the processor is who i would say is that middle man um that's the person who actually can speak to the underwriter um we as the lender as the um loan officer we do not so to speak um it's the processor is uh who's the person we give all the information that you've given to us um your all of your loans off um your income information your tax returns your pay stubs um your divorce decree um your child support payments um all that is the processor's job is to collect all the information that we need to support um the documentation to give to the underwriter as to say why we do deserve um to give you this loan and why you should be financed basically um and so that's the processor's job so typically the processor is the one who says you know what um the underwriter has come back with these conditions um can you provide this oh you can't you can't get that then can you provide this instead and that will still suffice so that's the that's um the processor is that middleman but they work with us so we work directly with the processor so once we find out hey what did the underwriter say um well what about this will this work tell the this underwriter um uh that we have this you know that we have um one documentation instead of what they're asking for ask them is that if that would work you know so that's who would kind of be that middle man to to kind of go back to the underwriter and say look we have this so you know to support our case that's really good to know um i just thought of another question is there a legal reason that the lender does not communicate with the underwriter well um not necessarily there's more of a compliant um you know reason you just want to make sure that you again uh you don't have the underwriter um suede for any reason to say that this you know oh they don't have this information but because i like this person i'll go ahead and just approve their loans right um so that's why it's kind of done without us really knowing who the underwriter is um so it's like it's not fun it's an unbiased opinion so you're not oh this person has two children they've been working so hard just pushing through it's really an unbiased look at the documents absolutely okay um and can we before i ask my last question is your number one tip for um first time home buyers in underwriting but i just thought about this is there anything like any um thing that you would like to say i wanted to tell you there's two things i think about with underwriting that's come recently the underwriter wanted they had the um the employment information but they wanted the processor to get on the phone with hr and hr didn't allow the um the buyer's employer hr didn't allow to give you know outside information so they had to get on a three-way call so the underwriter required for them to get on three-way the buyer the um the buyer the processor and the hr representative from this from their employer to verify their job history so that was something that came out of underwriting right so i guess they were trying to make sure you know her job history was correct add another one that was they called the job to make sure they still worked there and they had recently lost their job but they didn't you know update the lender and that was a problem because they called they're like oh both you know blah blah still work there and they're like no he hasn't worked here in over a month so like it's really important that you update your lender your lender is working for you they want you to get that loan don't think you'll just be able to push these things through and nobody oh absolutely not especially not in this temperament this climate i mean we're in the kovic world right now and lenders are kind of um as anxious uh as they are to get loans approved and to get loans circulating and out there they're nervous they're afraid they want to make sure that you'll actually be able to make your payments three months down the road that you're not going to be affected by what's going on or that you haven't already um they know that um you know that they have people who unfortunately have put on their documentation that i work and they're no longer working and and so as your underwriter is fully aware so again this goes to um kind of just being informed and knowing that when you're found when you're getting your your loans you do have to be honest um you do have to have your whatever it is that your information that you were supplying that you can back it up basically with your paperwork um note that the underwriter guidelines is almost like their bible i mean they're going to it and and for each individual individual underwriter they have their own interpretations um just as you know the same for any other word so it's like um you leave the understanding up to each individual underwriter so you'll have different things that could be required and requested you'll have different things that may work for one underwriter that may not work for another um so you know we and that is the reason why we never really know if what we've given uh will suffice and it's the last call there but it does come back to us and it does come back to your your loan officer of being able to kind of set forth creativity um and pretty much allowing owls to be clean i mean sometimes that too is helpful knowing uh who is starting your loan process and that they actually produce pretty clean loans meaning that they already have a lot of information inside of the file so that typically um the underwriters would know um wow this must have been an oversight or you know hey so let's give them time with this hey well let me tell them what they can do instead of just one piece of paper that i'm giving versus someone who has a foul that's always uh we never put anything in the foul until the underwriter asks for it and now they're having to basically discover everything within your file for you um so there are so many different temperaments when it comes to underwriting and so many different elements as to why you can get different conditions back that ultimately you want to just make sure that the setup and the start of your foul is as clean as possible and that helps your underwriting experience be a lot smoother and a lot less stressful okay and just tell them um what conditions are again so conditions are things that the underwriter needs to approve your loan right so additionally absolutely so conditions are pretty much what they say is um your loan would be approved uh provided um you can provide these documents so um you have an approval that is based under the condition you can provide uh these documents so therefore we just call those conditions okay um so at that point you would um we just say hey the underwriter um the processor will be in touch with you to give you your condition um so the processor will contact you and let you know all of the items that the underwriter is asking for and if you can provide these documents and this information then at that point we can yield an approval once they review it okay so that's what conditions i'm gonna give my advice and i want you to give your number one tip for first-time homebuyers in the underwriting process has been excellent information thank you so much but i do want to say don't let it frustrate i think the most frustrating process i think in the loan thing is the underwriting why they asking for this i already gave them this already gave them this copy and what i try to tell my buyers is just give it to them you know if you want to get through the process instead of complaining about what they're asking for just get ready you know they're going to ask you they may ask you for it again they might ask for an update i say don't put any you know payments that you can't you know you don't want just people putting money into your account during this time either because any money that you put in your account you might want to speak on that too has to be verified because if the if the down payment is supposed to be coming from you or the closing costs are supposed to be coming from you and then you have people just dropping you know ten thousand dollars in your account like three days before you close or five days before you close then that's like a red flag to an underwriter they're gonna like where'd this money come from right so you have to verify those deposits so just make sure like you said you're not doing anything new financially it has to come from the documentation the income that you said you have and then don't get frustrated with the underwriter or the processor asking you for things over again just go ahead and give it to them they wouldn't ask for anything they didn't need so just go ahead and give it to them that's my advice so you can speak on any large deposits anything they shouldn't do you know anything you know stories that you might want to tell whatever so what's your number one advice for first-time homebuyers um the okay so my first advice would be to kind of start you from the top of the beginning process and that is um be truthful to your loan officer it's just it starts there because if you are crucial and you don't have the funds then you will not be in underwriting and then not close um if you are truthful and you are using your credit cards then you don't have to uh be ever baited at the fact that you can't close in 30 days and your closing has been pushed out so you have to learn that honesty is important and it doesn't mean that if you say hey um you guys i have thirty thousand dollars saved up that the lender is going to say oh you're closing costs of thirty thousand dollars you know so you just be honest and be truthful um and that actually starts the process and it just creates a and relationship that makes the loan officer wants to want to work with you um and want to see what they can do to get you in that home so that's the first thing um the second thing is know that whatever you have to listen to your loan officer i mean i respect and love the fact that a lot of first-time homeowners like to do their own research it's awesome i think that what we're taught to do when something is new for us however that does not then make you an expert at first time home ownership because you've read five websites um so listen to your loan officer they probably know a little bit more than you do at this point so kind of follow their instruction and when you follow the instruction then again you don't have those things like large deposits going into your account um you don't have those accidents made where you've charged up your credit card for your first floor furniture uh to be set out for you when you are when you move in you will not do those things so listen and pay attention and then finally make sure that like i think you you hit the nail on the head provide the documentation that they're asking for let me tell you i'm in underwriting right now and of course i thought i you know assured my agent oh this is a clean pal i'm sorry and everything's there's nothing they'll need you know what else could they possibly need and even i find myself having to kind of jump online and grabbing documents and ordering transcripts and things um and of course again um i want to make sure that i close within a matter of days right that's how it goes for all of us so you feel a little bit of stress because it acts and you want to make sure it happens and you have everyday life going on you still have to run during your lunch hour and and go get documents signed and you still have to make sure that you get back to work and finish those reports leaving time enough to get the kids to practice on time and then back from practicing time enough so dinner is not eating late and then at the same time this underwriter wants more information you know how's that i i get it we get it but when you are just you know when you provide it and you have that fast turnaround um especially with everything being online you know just stop for a moment stop with the stress and think things through i think i found myself kind of going to the bank um the other day for a printout and um jay had to stop me he's like what are you doing pull it up i stopped and i laughed and i was like yeah everything you can do so you know don't make it stressful for yourself remember the shortcuts that are already here like websites um online documents can be you know documents can be retrieved online they can be signed um through docusign so just remember those things you know there are things that are in place to make it simpler and to make it a little bit easier but you still i mean what they say you have to work hard for what you want so i mean you're still going to have to jump through a couple hoops to get to that last landing and that's ultimately the goal so if you do it you'll get there all right thank you so much keisha tell them how we should reach you and i'll have it in the description as well all of her contact information so if they want to get a loan through home style home star financial the xander team they want to work with you how should they reach you what's the best place you guys if you uh want to take advantage of just having um an easy process of getting into your home and just less hoops to jump through and and a helping hand and um some fun and excitement and some smiles with me and jay then give us a call we're here we have a team that takes um calls so you can reach us at 678-552-1513 um that's 678-552 even when we're not here it comes over to our cell phones you can even text us at that number um if you can't put in a call um so we've made it easy for you guys to reach out to us um so reach out by phone text us you can email me as well i'm sure shahida will have the information down below um so email me it's keishagat.gaskin homestarfc.com it's built a little differently so we'll have it listed but give me a call guys and i'd love to work with you all okay let me ask you one more question um you know this is like nationwide little youtube channel where do y'all um what states do y'all serve is it just georgia we are um it's better remembered when i think about the states that we don't because apparently those are the ones that aren't looking to move anyway so we are in uh we're pretty much nationwide as well um but here in our office uh we can get you in many most of at least midwest and southeast states and some on i know on the west side as well so i would say specifically for those details give us a call and what we don't have or what we can't do we have someone in our team environment that probably can get you done some anywhere you are thank you so much so there should be you should know everything you need to know about underwriting and don't let the process frustrate you just get through it it's a means to an end you have to go through the underwriter to get your loan approval that's right thank you so much keisha it's been great thank you you're welcome thank you guys thank you shahidah bye

Channel: Shaheedah Hill

Views: 118,563

Keywords: Shaheedah Hill, Atlanta real estate, First time home buyer, First time homebuyer, First time home buyer tips, What does the underwriter do when buying a house, How long does underwriting mortgage approval take, What is underwriting, underwriting, What happens in underwriting, underwriting explained, mortgage underwriting explained, mortgage process, how does a mortgage get approved, mortgage underwriting process, what happens during underwriting, mortgage underwriting

Id: Oi1YCSLZwK8

Length: 33min 45sec (2025 seconds)

Published: Sat Sep 19 2020