Licensing System ( NMLS ). The loan officer’s licensing status can be verified with the NMLS at www.nmlsconsumeraccess.org. The site is incredibly simple: you enter in a loan officer’s name, address, and other important information, and the system tells you if they are on the level. It will let you know if they are an active registrant in the federal database, if they are authorized to conduct business, and, if so, what organizations they are authorized to represent. It goes without saying that if you start working with a loan officer who is not up-to-date on their NMLS c ir NMLS certifications, you and your clients should not work with him/her. This could not only cause serious delays in the mortgage process, but could put you and your clients into considerable financial danger. Once the borrower has found an NMLS-certified loan officer, the preliminary discussions of the loan can begin. This is the first step in the loan process we discussed earlier: Origination . Once all loan disclosures are executed and all income and assets data are provided, the transaction moves into the second phase, which is Processing . The loan processor works with the loan officer to handle the loan’s documentation and tasks. For example, they are in charge of ordering the appraisal, doing title work, verifying income and deposits, checking the debt-to-income ( DTI ) ratio, and a multitude of other loan-related items. Once the loan processor assembles the loan package, they submit it to the underwriting department, beginning the third stage of the loan process: Underwritin g. As stated earlier, underwriting is the process of poring through the submitted information from the buyer and making sure it jibes with the requirements of the loan organization. The underwriter will focus on matching the applicant’s income, assets, credit information, property title, and home appraisal to the lender’s lending guidelines. If everything
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