The first person engaged in the lending process is referred to as the loan officer. The loan officer is the project coordinator, overseeing the transfer of information between you (the prospective buyer) and their organization’s processing and underwriting departments. It is likely that the loan officer will be in direct contact with the borrower from the beginning of the mortgage process all the way through until closing. The loan officer should be licensed with the National Mortgage 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.
THE LOAN PROCESSOR
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: Underwriting. As stated earlier, underwriting is the process of poring through the buyer’s submitted information 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 meets the organization’s requirements, a loan is offered and a
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