From now until the end of 2008 less a handful of days because of Holidays or other commitments I will share with you 30 tips to help with faster, smoother, cheaper, better, mortgage closings. After all -no money -no sale. So unless you are dealing with cash these tips will help. I depend on closing mortgages for a living so if you are in Georgia or Florida and buying a home to live in please call me. In Georgia we are a lender and in Florida a broker. If you are an investor or commercial property buyer I can provide mortgages in most states. My number is 866-946-0120 and I am at extension 101. And here we go -counting down from 30.

Mortgage Tip #30

Currently almost every conventional loan for single family real estate whether for investment purposes or a primary residence requires fully documented income. To provide evidence the borrower will need up to one or all of the following:

1. Last three years of tax returns. While this is not always a requirement they are paperwork that should be kept at hand anyway. If you are an agent advise your client to locate these items and have clear photocopies made and be ready to deliver them to the mortgage broker.
2. Last two months of bank statements -all pages. Let me emphasize all pages. Many times over the years I have emphatically stated, written in bold and underlined all pages. Let me explain what all pages are: If you get an envelope in the mail from the bank with your bank statement copy everything that came in the envelope. If you don't understand everything then copy everything made of paper whether or not it has writing or pictures on it. If you still cannot understand everything send the entire envelope, as it arrived from the bank, to the mortgage broker. You cannot leave out any pages even if they are blank. If the underwriter gets pages 1 throuhgh 23 of 24 the file will be placed in suspension until they get page 24. The reason people leave off page 24? Because it doesn't have anything printed on it except the page number. Trust me -don't question it -just do it, copy the blank pages, too. Also, copy the front and the back of all pages. Pages 2,4,6,8,10,12 .... those don't do any good.
3. Last month's worth of paystubs. If you get paid once a month that would be one paystbu. If you get paid every other week that would be 2 paystubs. If you get paid 4 times a month that would be 4 paystubs. If you get paid whenever you earn money that would be paystubs for every paycheck you have received in the last 30 days.
4. Any large deposits (large could mean $200) on the bank statement may need an explanation. The mortgage broker cannot write the letter -the borrower needs to write it. (Sample letter is located here.) If there is no paper trail or independent third party verification this stip cannot be closed and even with this will probably need to be signed by a senior underwriter (thank you to Myra my beautiful wife and one of the best underwriters on the planet).
5. Commissions to be used to determine DTI must have been reported on taxes for the last two years. The same goes for gratuities and spiffs.

This is the blatant list and there are subtleties that are not listed here. Even if we made the list 100 items long there may still be something that could come up on an individual basis that we omitted. Again, if you are in Georgia or Florida there are people as good as one or the other of us but I put my team against ANY team in getting deals closed smoothly, quickly and as painlessly as possible. The fact that I may be training the loan officer you may be using now, for free, should stand as a testimony to my desire to provide a service that cannot be topped for the good of the industry and the good of the community.

Ken Cook 866-946-0120 extension 101

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