Mortgage Qualification Questions

[brewer12345]

When I applied for a re-fi at PenFed they wouldn't accept the printout of an online statement.

Shocking. When I refied with them last year they took everything as a pdf.

 

[Nords]

When I applied for a re-fi at PenFed they wouldn't accept the printout of an online statement.

Shocking. When I refied with them last year they took everything as a pdf.

I'm two weeks into a PenFed refi and they've had our 16 PDFs for about a week now. Some of the PDFs are document scans and some are copied right off Fidelity's website. PenFed didn't immediately reject them and, while I haven't heard any response at all, I suspect that they're OK with it. I guess I'll know more next week when I start pinging PenFed and our title company about the appraisal.

... at some point an individual at the bank should be able to exercise some reason and say "You know, it is almost certain this loan will perform and we're well covered if it doesn't. Why bother with tax returns?"
In my view, the current paranoid approach and the former laissez-faire approach are two sides to the same coin. No one is exercising any judgment as to the actual risk that is being undertaken by the bank; they are simply mechanically applying rules (or, in the past, not applying them). Neither approach serves our economy well.

I suspect that judgment & discretion went out the window when the lenders stopped holding the loans in favor of FHA's securitizing guidelines.

My impression is that FHA didn't necessarily dictate the process as much as they said "Lenders will conform to the following criteria" and then abdicated the enforcement to the FDIC and the lender's "best practices"... which as we all know has a tendency to redirect all flow through the largest loopholes.

 

[lowflyer]

I think the mistake we make is thinking that a loan processor has discretion on loan documentation. I thought our refi process was well underway, but just last week talked to them and they needed more “income verification” information, so had to scan some more items for them to add to the mix. The refi application moves through the system step by step and I guess each person is responsible for their part and the standards are different than they used to be. They can’t tell by our application that we have only the best intentions and will likely pay back our loan.

 

[Meadbh]

The documentation requirements that the OP is describing is pretty normal in my experience here in Canada, where lending institutions have always been cautious.

 

[Brat]

My refi with PenFed was 2-3 years ago. Since that time many financial institutions (including PenFed) is sending PDFs by e-mail to escape the cost of postage. PenFed's mortgage operation may have changed their expectations. At that time PenFed wanted copies to include all the pro-forma verbage at the end of the statement. What a waste of paper.

 

[brewer12345]

My refi with PenFed was 2-3 years ago. Since that time many financial institutions (including PenFed) is sending PDFs by e-mail to escape the cost of postage. PenFed's mortgage operation may have changed their expectations. At that time PenFed wanted copies to include all the pro-forma verbage at the end of the statement. What a waste of paper.

They have actually been sticklers as far as lending goes for a long time, so that does not surprise me. When refi'd about a year ago, I was amazed at how much documentation they wanted for a mortgagethat was a slam dunk, credit wise. OTOH, I was also amazed at how much easier it was to submit said docs, mostly as emailed pdfs.