lenders are looking to close a deal — any deal — in order to earn their commission. Bad lenders are hoping to keep your buyers inside their institution in some form or another, even if there’s only a slight possibility that the buyer will qualify for the loan they seek. I realized right away when I first became a lender: if you aren’t sure it’s a done deal, then don’t say it is...ever. I learned that to be a good lender, I needed to go after the solid deals rather than the wobbly ones. Sure, a lot more wobbly deals came across my desk than solid deals, but my reputation wasn’t going to be solidified on those shaky loans. To set myself apart from the bad lenders, I had to work the lucrative “sure bets,” and not whatever fluff dropped in my lap. At the same time, I knew that a great lender doesn’t turn down people who actually can be approved. It’s not like there are two exclusive factions of loan applications: shaky and solid. There’s lots of gray area in both the “shaky” and “solid” camps, and I needed to know the difference between a “too shaky for me” loan, and a “shaky, but worth working” loan. Any lender in the world can get a loan for somebody who is the absolute perfect buyer. Maybe the applicant has a credit score of 800, an amazing W-2 job at a Fortune 500 company, and a million dollars in the bank. Maybe they’re buying an affordable property at below market value, so it’s guaranteed to appraise. The property is perfect, the buyer is perfect, the market is perfect...everything is perfect. A loan officer who just started their first day on the job can close that deal. But, as you well know, that’s not most loans. On any given workday, most loans are going to have some sort of challenge. It could be that the lender needs more bank or income documentation, or to know that the applicant has a bit more
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