AUS is simply the acronym for Automated Underwriting System. Still with me? More commonly known in the real estate world as "DU", AUS is the program that issues automated loan approvals or rejections when a borrower's personal information is input.
All AUS systems use algorithms that analyze things like borrower's total credit profile, their income, debt to income ratio, job history, asset reserves, and more. AUS comes in some different shapes and sizes -
DU, or desktop underwriter, is Fannie Maes version and by far the most commonly used. DU is (22 comments)
As a Realtor in an extreme seller's market as we're seeing in so many markets around the country, wouldn't it be nice if every buyer you worked with was a cash buyer? While that's not reality, the mortgage company your buyer works with can make any offer just as competitive, if not more so, than the cash competition.
At Mason McDuffie, we are able to pre-underwrite a borrower's loan file before they find a home. As soon as they're ready to start looking, we can have income, assets, employment, credit, and (7 comments)
The practice has been around for quite a while. Some agents swear by it, others are indifferent, and some are offended. Vetting prospective buyers - even those that come with a handy, dandy preapproval letter in hand. Many agents will want that preapproval letter to come from THEIR preferred lender, or at least for their preferred lender to review a prospective buyers preapproval documents to ensure a solid preapproval.
Why require the same work to be done, twice? The same reason writers and columnists have an editor - because (36 comments)
You've heard it before. If you're going to buy a home one of the very first items on your 'to do' list needs to be obtaining a pre-approval from a lender. Not a pre-qualification (know the difference between a preapproval and prequalification?). Some of the more common reasons on why a pre-approval is necessary involve making sure credit is OK, making sure documentation meets lender guidelines, and giving sellers a warm & fuzzy feeling when you walk into their home. These reasons are important, but what about the "perfect" people? The ones with blindingly shiny credit, (16 comments)
Nope. Not from me. Well, that's not entirely true. Every loan pre-approval that I issue has contingencies that usually read something like "subject to final underwriter and investor review", "subject to completed satisfactory appraisal", etc. Every loan can fall apart at any given time due to no fault of involved parties - I remember back in 2007 I had a buyer pre-approved for a niche program - they found a home, wrote an offer, and it was accepted on a Tuesday evening. Wednesday morning, I received notice that the lender was (14 comments)
The terms pre-approval and pre-qualification are often used interchangeably. To me, there are 2 distinct definitions, but only 1 way of doing things right.
Commonly used (and practiced) definitions:
Pre-qualification - An assumption that mortgage financing can be obtained through a conversation with a consumer about income, assets, & credit. Many loan officers don't make it past this step when issuing a pre-approval letter.
Pre-approval - A preliminary approval based on a completed loan application & analysis of required income, asset, and credit documents, (7 comments)