My wife will not like me today just for the title. She's a head underwriter, you see. But she's not the only one we deal with. There are others and we know their names. We even know their habits. But let's look at the oft maligned underwriter in just a snapshot from a normal day. (Honey if you read the entire post you'll appreciate me--and recognize some stuff, ahem.)
8:20 Arrives at work. Nobody else in office so I check my email first as I always do. While my 260 messages are downloading I glance to see there are 14 voice messages since 7:30 last night when I left causing that lovely blue lite to blink. I look at the picture of the monkey on my wall reminding me of the book "The One Minute Manager Meets the Monkey" which reminds me of the other "Who Moved My Cheese"?
8:25 I hear the main line ringing already and breath a thanks to God it won't stat ringing at my desk until 8:45. Thanks to the Operations Manager who gave us 15 minutes to breathe in the mornings. My emails are finished downloading and since I do not want a bigger one, I do not need any V1AG-RA and I couldn't care less about a Rolecks watch I delete the 150 spams just to get to the 110 real messages. (Yes we have anti spam that caught another 500 messages automatically.)
8:35 I read the first email from a processor in Kennesaw in response to my request for a more recent pay-stub on a file I have already reviewed twice because of missing documents. She has included a scanned copy that is barely legible. I send back an email asking for a clearer copy and preferably the original.
8:38 I open an email from a loan officer in Stone Mountain demanding to know why we ordered an appraisal review on a home being purchased from an investor, who purchased it from an investor, who purchased it from a bank all in 2 months and the sales price has gone from $84k to $198k. She also reminds me they are closing in 3 days with or without our loan.
8:42 I only have another 158 more emails to go through and 11 more just came in ... none were spam.
8:45 The phones come on and the first voice I hear is the broker for the loan officer in Stone Mountain shouting.
8:56 I finish with the shouter who is still not happy but there is nothing I can do about it. I note the system the time he called, the file it was regarding and some select comments from the conversation and flag the file for QC which can be concurrent to the appraisal review.
9:01 I continue checking emails as my assistant arrives to begin listening to my voice message. Three in a row are from a staff underwriter sounding progressively ill. She has four closings today and seven tomorrow--her stip sheets, she informs me, are clipped to the front of the folders in her black file cabinet. I need coffee.
9:13 An appraisal review we ordered three days ago on a file from Marietta we've had for six days shows up and the value is about 3% less than the value shown to us by the broker's appraisal. I have my assistant phone the processor and deliver the news. Only 177 emails and 14 voice messages to go.
9:15 One of the guys from QC brings me coffee just the way I like it: half cream, one-quarter sugar and the rest vodka--er coffee.
9:16 One of the underwriters has a document she needs me to look at and it appears to be a set of tax returns from 2 years that exactly match to the penny. I don't even bother I just send her to Fraud and Compliance.
9:18 The next email is from a processor in Tucker thanking me for expediting a file that I must say was perfect. I have just enough time to send him a thanks and a :)
9:20 Another email from a broker in Savannah on an FHA file indicating we were not supposed to use GaFLA to determine high cost since it was an FHA deal--obviously one of their first. A quick phone call to explain that GaFLA covers ALL conforming range owner occupied loans in Georgia. She didn't like it but I was nice and she really should have known.
9:28 I've been working for eight hours and I only have 30 more hours worth of work today. Would you like to join?
Soooooooo.... I wrote all of that to give you an almost actual example of the first hour of a month's end day from a head underwriter's life. Other days in the month may not be quite so hectic but they are close. Did the head underwriter get to everything? Yes, she touched every email and responded. She or her assistant responded to every voice mail and she managed to take care of the absent underwriter's files, too.
This holiday season take time to thank an underwriter. You probably have no idea how stressful their days are. The next time you think they are idiots or just asking you for something to be a pain remember they answer to someone like me! I'm nothing but a big old teddy bear with a big responsibility to my investors!
Comments(11)