The Mortgage process....

I have read 2 great articles recently that I wish I could make every borrower that walks into my office read. I am going to add a lot of the quotes from these articles to my application speech.
The biggest thing that I got out of them is to let my customer's know being qualifed for a mortgage is not the most important part of a loan application. To tell the truth, the qualifications for getting a loan really haven't changed that much. The definition of a "perfect loan file" to a lender is not about qualifications, but about DOCUMENTATION!!
It is not good enough anymore to have perfect credit and a large down payment. Now you have to document it. And I mean document everything. Every penny in your account and every line item on your tax returns, lenders are going to want supporting documentation.
My advice, taken from Mark Greene's article in Forbes Magazine:
When I was a kid, my father occasionally issued directives that I naturally thought were superfluous, and when asked why I needed to do whatever it was he wanted me to do, his answer was often: “Because I said so.” This never seemed to address my query but always left me without a retort, and I would usually comply. This is exactly what consumers should do during the mortgage approval process. When your lender requests what seems to be over-documentation and you wonder why you need it, accept the simple edict – “because I said so.” You will find the mortgage approval process much less frustrating.
I know this sounds very arrogant to tell a customer to simply "do what your told", but read the rest of his commentary on why mortgage companies are now forced to make sure that every loan file is perfect.
http://www.forbes.com/sites/moneybuilder/2012/03/09/the-perfect-loan-file-2/