Home-Buying Process Continued: Underwriting

An overview of the underwriting process and what to expect.

So you’ve been through the appraisal process, which means that you’re near one of the last parts of the journey: underwriting.

At this point, you’ll send the appraisal off to underwriting, along with all the documentation that your lender has collected so far. The underwriter will go through and decide if all your information is in order and whether you meet their requirements.

I won't sugarcoat it: This part of the process can be very frustrating. One reason is that once it goes to the underwriter, it’s essentially a blind process to the rest of us. You, your Realtor, your attorney, and sometimes even your lender aren’t exactly sure where the underwriter is in the process or whether they’re going to ask for more documentation. Generally, though, because you’ve been through an intensive vetting process with your lender, there shouldn’t really be a doubt that you’ll be approved; it’s more a question of what else they’ll need.

If your underwriter does ask for additional information, get them what they request as quickly as possible.

Typically, they’ll inform you that they have almost everything they need, but they want to check to make sure, for example, that you’re still employed and all the funds you said you had are still in the bank. If they do ask for additional information, get them what they request as quickly as possible.

Once that’s all done, they’ll issue what’s called the ‘clear to close,’ which gives your attorneys and agents permission to schedule the closing. We’ll talk more about that final phase of the process in our next video, so stay tuned to our blog.

In the meantime, if you have any questions about this or other stages of the home-buying process, don’t hesitate to give me a call or send me an email. I’d love to help you.