When you are taking an application for a customer, and they wish to lock in a rate, do you:

JJ, we do both of those here. It's up to the LO to make the call as to whether he believes the borrower will qualify for a certain product or wait till at least DU is back.

So, how are you handling situations when you take app and lock, but then the investor or DU doesn't approve, but you have another that is willing to do so... deny and pursue another app, or try to find a loophole in the app and supporting documents and try to set up a changed circumstance, or ??

We deliver best efforts to our investors. We lock and then underwrite. The LO is well versed in the eligibility requirements however there are always some small percentage that fall out. Our pull through with the investor is 65% range.

Investor's don't approve, we underwrite in house on all. Credit rating score is pulled on application so we have an idea about whether this is close or can go ahead and lock.

I usually do a quick DU run-through to pull a bureau and get an approve/eligible before locking. This is especially important to determine DU RefiPlus eligibility. I've had to cancel only a few locks for times when the file proved to be ineligible after full underwriting.

There are a few times when I locked immediately after running the bureau (I have to have a credit score in order to lock) and then finish the DU afterwards for the sake of time, or if I know that the loan is a slam dunk.