Reissue the Credit Inside the LOS. Every Time.

Credit gets pulled outside the LOS all the time. Somebody on your side ran it at application, or the borrower walked in with a report, or it got pulled in another system months before the file ever reached processing.

That's fine. It happens on plenty of files. It's what happens next that costs you.

The file nobody can actually read

The PDF gets uploaded, everybody checks the box, and the file moves on.

Except the liabilities screen is still empty. Or worse, it's half populated with whatever got typed in at application and never touched again.

So now somebody is reading a credit report in one window and hand-typing balances into a 1003 in the other. Sixteen tradelines. Four of them closed. Two with the same creditor name and different account numbers. One authorized user account that nobody caught. Type all of that in by hand, on a Friday, with three other files open, and tell me nothing gets missed.

Then the report ages out. Credit gets re-run, or a supplement comes back, and the balances sitting in the file are still from the first version. Nobody notices. The numbers in the file look like numbers. They just don't match the report anymore.

So we reissue the Credit Inside the LOS

Even when credit was pulled outside the LOS, our processors reissue it inside the LOS using the credentials from the original pull.

That's the whole habit. It takes about two minutes.

It is not a new pull. It doesn't hit the borrower's credit again, and there's no additional charge for doing it. It brings the report that already exists into the system the right way, and that does three things:

1. Liabilities populate themselves, with the actual balances, payments, and account numbers off the report.

2. The report sits where an underwriter expects to find it, instead of being an attachment somebody has to go looking for.

3. When credit gets re-run or supplemented later, the file updates with it instead of quietly drifting out of date.

Two minutes on the front end, and the file stops being something anyone has to reconcile by hand.

Why you care about a data entry shortcut

Because hand-keyed liabilities are where quiet conditions come from, and a clean file starts with data that actually matches the report.

One balance off by a digit moves the ratio. An account somebody skipped because it looked closed comes back as a condition asking you to explain the omission. An authorized user tradeline nobody flagged sits there until underwriting finds it, and now you're answering a question on day nine that was answerable on day one.

None of those are hard problems. Every one of them is findable at the front of the file. They just require the data in the file to match the report it came from.

And there's a second thing you get, which is that the whole report is in front of your processor in a readable form early. That's how we catch the stuff that isn't a late and still stops the loan. A disputed revolver with a real balance on it, for example. Score's fine, no lates, nothing that trips an alarm, and the dispute still has to come off before the file clears. Found on day two, that's a phone call to the borrower. Found after the CD goes out, that's a re-disclosure and a closing date you already promised somebody.

The part I actually care about

I think most of the "underwriting is being difficult on my file" complaints in this business are really "nobody made the file readable."

An underwriter opening a file with populated liabilities, a report in the right place, and notes that explain the exceptions is going to work through it. An underwriter opening a PDF attachment and an empty liabilities screen is going to send conditions, because that's the only tool they have for asking somebody to do the work that didn't get done.

You don't control which underwriter you get. You control what they open. Just like we don't control what the borrower sends, but we can control how we ask.

Bottom line

This is a two-minute step that most files skip, and skipping it doesn't fail loudly. It fails as three extra conditions, a ratio somebody has to fix, and a closing date that moves for reasons nobody can point to.

If your processor is hand-typing liabilities off a PDF, that's not thoroughness. That's just a slower way to introduce errors into your file, and you're the one who explains it to the borrower when it surfaces.

Want a file your underwriter opens and just works?

Make Sense Processing is contract processing for loan officers in the broker channel. Credit reissued in the LOS so liabilities are right the first time, one consolidated document request, notes you can actually read, and status you never have to chase.

partnership@makesenseprocessing.com — makesenseprocessing.com For mortgage professionals only. This is a business to business communication for loan originators and brokers. It is not intended for consumers and is not an offer of credit. Make Sense Processing provides contract processing to licensed originators. We do not originate loans, take applications, or advise on rates, terms, or qualification. Nothing here is legal or compliance advice, and guidelines vary by lender, program, and state, so verify anything you plan to rely on.