For agents
When financing slips, you are the one asking for the extension and facing that listing agent again next month. This is what happens on a file I take, when you get told, and the things I will not do.
The lender is not in the room when it goes wrong. You are. You ask for the extension, you explain it to a client who has already given notice on their rental, and you sit across from that listing agent again on the next deal.
You already know how often it happens, so I am not going to quote you a survey about it. What is worth putting on a page like this is specifics: who touches the file, what gets verified before a letter goes out, when you get told, and where I will tell you no.
Visalia and the Central Valley are home, and I work files across California. The line is the state border.
Second look
Symptom first, because that is the order you meet them in. Whether any of it actually works is a question about the file, which is why there is a call and why nothing here is an approval.
The returns show a fraction of what the business actually produces, and the bank came back short on debt to income. A bank statement program qualifies on business deposits rather than the net left on the return. A profit and loss program qualifies on a statement a preparer signs. They are different programs and they suit different files.
Bank statement→A retail underwriter reads the net after write-offs and the file dies there. A 1099 program qualifies on the gross the payers reported instead.
1099 income→The bank wants the loan in a personal name. DSCR qualifies on the property's own rent rather than the borrower's pay stubs, which is also where a buyer whose tax returns will never show enough is worth a second look.
DSCR→Retired, between ventures, or living off a portfolio. Asset depletion builds qualifying income from the liquid assets they hold rather than asking for a paycheck that does not exist.
Asset depletion→An offer does not have to be contingent on a sale that has not happened yet. Bridge money is underwritten on how it ends, and it is worth comparing against a contingent offer before you write rather than after.
Bridge→Condition, a short hold, or a plan to improve and resell. Fix and flip, commercial and SBA sit on the same desk as the ordinary purchase, so an investor client does not get handed to somebody else and hoped for.
All investor programs→The protocol
In order, because the order is the part that matters to you. It ends on a date your contract sets rather than one I pick.
Send it over, named or not
A text or an email with the situation. Income type, property type, rough numbers, timeline. You do not need a buyer under contract, an application, or anything signed, and you do not have to give me the client's name yet.
You get a straight read
Whether there is a path, what it would take, and what I would need to see to be certain. If the honest answer is not yet, you get that, with what would have to change and roughly in what order.
Documents before a letter
Credit pulled, income documents read, assets sourced before anything goes out in writing. A conversation is not an approval and I will not write a letter as though it were, whatever the tour schedule is doing.
The letter says what it was reviewed on
What was verified, what is still open, and when it expires, in writing on the letter itself. My number is on it rather than a general office line, and I will take the listing agent's call to stand behind what is in it.
You hear from me while it is in process
A written update as the file moves, and a phone call when something changes or a date comes under pressure. I would rather you heard it from me than worked it out from your client.
The contingency date is the clock I watch
Whatever your contract says the loan contingency date is, that is the date I am working to, and you hear from me as it gets close rather than on the day itself. I am not going to quote you a number of days, because underwriting turn times are not mine to promise.
Straight answers
An agent who has been burned trusts this part more than the enthusiasm.
No referral fee, no bonus, no gift card, in either direction. RESPA does not allow it, and that goes for any lender rather than just me. The cooperative fee you can lawfully take from another agent is not available on the mortgage side, which is a distinction worth knowing if somebody offers you one.
Not your flyers, your photography, your signage, your CRM seat or your client event. I do not pay toward an agent's marketing and I do not ask an agent to pay toward mine. Everything on this page is work I do myself.
I do the loan. Your client stays your client and your past client stays yours. I am not acting as the real estate agent on your transaction and I am not angling to.
No loan is approved on a phone call and nothing said on one is a commitment to lend. A prequalification is not a pre-approval, and I will not hand your buyer a letter that blurs the two.
No ten day close, no clocked promises. I can tell you what I am doing and when I will tell you about it. Anyone promising a date on a file they have not read is guessing.
If the answer is no, or not for a few months, you get that early. Early is cheaper for you than finding out at the inspection, and it gives your client their decision back while the contingency is still in place.
I am licensed in California and that is the whole territory. If your client is buying out of state, I am the wrong call and you will hear that on the first one.
Showing up
Specific acts rather than a statement of availability. None of them require you to send me a file, before or after, and none of them are offered on that basis.
I will come and answer financing questions for whoever walks in, on my own time and with my own materials. I do not ask for a copy of your sign in sheet and I do not hand you one. Anyone who wants to talk to me takes my card.
In person or on a call, at the point where the money conversation usually gets vague. Your client hears the numbers from the person who will be underwriting them.
If your buyer asks me to, I will speak to the other side about what has been reviewed and what is still open, inside whatever your buyer has authorized me to share.
Give me twenty minutes at a sales meeting and I will go through what is genuinely getting underwritten right now. Open to anyone who wants to sit in, no continuing education credit attached, and nobody has to send me anything to attend.
Who runs your file
I set the strategy and stay on the file. Marissa and Sally run it once it is in, which is 35+ years in processing and operations between them. Your file is not sitting in one person's inbox waiting for that person to be free.
Before you ask
No. RESPA prohibits giving anything of value in exchange for the referral of settlement service business, and that applies to any lender, not only to me. The cooperative referral fee you can lawfully take from another real estate licensee is a different thing and is not available on the mortgage side.
I do not pay toward an agent's marketing and I do not ask an agent to pay toward mine. I am a loan officer and loans are arranged through Gold Standard Mortgage, so anything co-branded would be a question for them rather than something I can agree to myself.
No, and that is the point. None of it is conditioned on sending me anything, before or after. Any licensed California agent can ask.
The situation in a text or an email. Income type, property type, rough numbers, timeline. No application, nothing signed, and you do not have to give me the client's name until there is something worth doing.
Conventional, FHA and VA purchases are the bulk of the work. The investor and alternative documentation programs sit on the same desk, which means a client who turns out to be complicated does not get handed to somebody else partway through.
You hear it from me as soon as I know, with what would have to change and whether it is worth changing. If it cannot be placed, you get that early enough to use the contingencies your client still has.
You do not need a buyer attached. A file another lender has already declined is a perfectly good first test, and you will get a straight answer either way.
Isaiah Wilburn is a licensed mortgage loan officer, NMLS 1887173, CA DRE 02204474. Loans are arranged through Gold Standard Mortgage, a California licensed real estate broker, NMLS 1779283. Nothing on this page is an offer of credit or a commitment to lend, and no compensation of any kind is offered or accepted in exchange for referrals.
