Teamwork makes the dream work: Mortgage pros as explained by football
About to buy a home? Step on the field and get ready to meet your teammates. That's right, by the time you're rearranging living room furniture — again — in your beloved new house, you'll have amassed quite the real estate entourage. You've got to admit there's a cool factor to being at the center of a mortgage dream team. Cue visions of yourself, arms folded, in a huddle of your very own industry pros — an unstoppable force of mortgage and home readiness.
But before we get ahead of ourselves, let's introduce the players. Here are a few industry professionals likely to fulfill a role in your journey to home, sweet home.
The real estate agent is your biggest cheerleader through the entire homebuying experience. A top quality agent has devoted his or her career to learning everything necessary about buying and selling homes to provide expert guidance for people like you. Through required state licensing, ongoing training and on-the-job experience, agents become a wealth of home buying and home selling encouragement, equipped to help you with everything from contracts to homeowners associations to choosing the right neighborhood.
Most buyers' agents are compensated by the seller based on a percentage of the final home cost. You can expect your agent to be with you, cheering you on and making sure everything goes smoothly, from start to finish.
A great loan officer is like a winning coach. They'll scout your potential and coach you through the financial requirements until you meet the goal of owning a home. Loan officers want to make sure you understand the monetary commitment of home buying, so they'll walk you through the application and approval process and explain things like how your credit impacts your interest rate, how to make the best loan decision, what all the lending terms mean for you and what you can expect after you've signed on all the dotted lines.
Like any good sports coach, a top-rate loan officer will help you feel confident and ready for the loan you've chosen as well as the financial responsibility you're taking on.
If you want to relate a mortgage position to a referee, underwriting is it. Underwriters are pivotal to loan approval — making the ultimate call on each loan application. They have to possess extensive knowledge about the legal requirements of a loan, how the process has to be executed and industry changes that happen regularly.
Most underwriters have that particular combination of industry know-how and analytical prowess — making them the most qualified for making the final decision about your loan approval. This is the reason Movement Mortgage offers Upfront Underwriting. Giving your loan application to the professional who knows exactly what to look for early in the process means you can get a reliable initial decision before you start shopping and making offers.
Scorekeeping is the processor's trademark. As your loan application moves from acceptance to approval, a processor makes sure every piece is accounted for, every line filled and every question answered.
Though you may picture the processor in a lonely corner flipping numbers, those at Movement Mortgage are actually very involved in the final loan approval effort — staying in constant communication with the borrower, underwriter and loan officer to keep all the players moving while meeting the demands of the ticking clock.
Picture a clutch quarterback on the game-clinching drive. After the underwriter gives the all-clear for loan approval, the loan is given to a closer for final review. It's their job to identify outstanding issues and get the file to the end zone. They're also responsible for accurate distribution of fees to all the professionals and/or companies involved in getting you into your new home, as well as providing the borrower with a final receipt.
Once a closer determines a loan file is ready, they'll put the whole package together for delivery to a title company or attorney to be legalized. Oftentimes, a loan can get held up at closing from unresolved problems or slow handling, but at Movement, our closers have a goal to have your loan ready to go in one day to prevent game delays from happening to you.
On the homeownership playing field, you want sold-out, experienced, top-rated teammates. A closer with the quick score, a processor who thrives on precision under pressure, an underwriter with clear sight of the whole scene, a loan officer with the confidence of a caring coach and a real estate agent whose cheers propel you toward your hoped-for property. The unbeatable home buying dream team.
