The Mortgage Process—What Realtors Can Expect
When you refer a client to us for mortgage services, this is what they can expect from the mortgage process. Below are the steps of what you can expect as the realtor in the transaction:
1. The realtor contacts us for help
Call us or email us to let us know that you have a buyer who needs help. You can call us with a specific loan scenario, or just to let us know that you have a client who needs help getting a mortgage. You can call us at 310-294-9417.
2. We contact the buyer for a preliminary consultation
We will quickly contact your prospect and do a preliminary consultation with them, so that we can get the details of their situation. As part of this we, request some documents from the client and we get their permission for a soft credit pull.
3. Pre-qualification, loan proposal and pre-approval letter
If the requested information is provided by the client right away, then we can usually provide a pre-qualification within two days. With certain lenders, we can also obtain a full lender-endorses pre-approval. (This depends on which lender program is best suited to the client.) If we do our own pre-qualification, then we do this very thoroughly in-house, using our proprietary The Qualifier® system. We present the client with a detailed loan proposal and a mortgage broker approval letter (or, when possible, a full lender-endorsed pre-approval letter) that can be used to go shopping for properties.
If the client does not qualify, we will advise them as to how they can get qualified, and we will follow up with them until we can help them succeed.
7. Offer acceptance and opening of escrow, submission of the loan application to the lender
After the buyer has made an offer on a property and it has been accepted, then escrow is opened and at this point, a formal loan application is submitted to the lender. We will work with you client to fill out all the details of the loan application. We will assist him or her in structuring the loan in such a manner that they not only have a very high likelihood of approval, but also in a way it will make sense with their lifestyle and financial goals going into the future.
After the submission of the loan application, the lender will start issuing a number of disclosures at certain intervals in the process, which is something they are legally required to do and which the borrower has to sign in acknowledgement of their receipt, in order for the loan process to continue. Every time disclosures are issued, we will go over these and explain them to the client so that they know what they are signing and are kept in the loop throughout the process.
8. Loan approval with conditions
After the loan application is submitted, it goes through an underwriting process at the lender (“underwriting” means that specialized analysts at the lender’s offices will look at all the details of the loan application and endorse that the borrower is qualified according to the lender’s specifications and that approving this loan would be in accordance with the lender’s internal policies).
The underwriting process often goes through two phases—in the first phase, the application is reviewed by a computer program, and if it passes that stage, then the application goes to a human underwriter. If it passes the human underwriter, then the loan is approved with conditions. The loan approval is always conditional at this stage, subject to satisfaction of specific conditions. Examples of these conditions are explanations of items that appear on the borrower’s credit report, the performance of an appraisal on the property to be purchased, and the appraisal value coming out equal to or higher than the specified loan amount.
We will work closely with your client to satisfy all of the lender’s conditions, and we stay in tight coordination with the realtor so that there are no last-minute surprises.
9. Loan document signing
The final stage of the loan process is for the buyer to sign the loan documents. Our mortgage professional will go over the loan documents with the buyer in detail beforehand. Escrow will arrange for a notary will come to the buyer’s house or place of business so they can sign the documents hard copy with the notary as a witness.
10. Loan closing, disbursement of funds and receipt of loan documents
Escrow will close the loan by recording necessary documents, and they will disburse the funds so that the purchasing transaction can close. We will send the buyer an archival CD with all documents pertaining to their mortgage.
Now you have a closed transaction! Time to celebrate, and don’t forget to ask your buyer to refer any friends who might also have need of a realtor. :)