Getting across the finish line is sometimes more challenging than getting your initial mortgage approval.

Lenders have different processes for evaluating mortgage applications. With some lenders we need to submit all of your supporting documents upfront; others send out the initial approval with a list of what they want to review.

Process-wise I collect all (or most) of my clients’ documents before I ever submit for an approval. This means we can be flexible when choosing which lender we are going to work with. In some cases when I know it will be a few days before the client is able to provide everything I will work with a lender that sends out their approval then asks for the documents.

There are pros and cons to both lender processes.

For the lenders that need everything upfront, in an ideal situation their approval arrives with very few additional document requests. This feels smoothest for our clients.

Lenders that issue an approval without reviewing all documents are great to work with when we are in a time crunch. If I am pretty confident of the information my clients have provided verbally but am just waiting on certain documents (ie: a T4 or bank statements) I will often use these lenders to make sure we stay on track to meet deadlines like our subject removal for financing.

Sometimes, even after working with clients for months, surprises pop up.

This week felt like a game of Whack-A-Mole dealing with just such surprises on several of my files.

First surprise: my client has a credit score in the high 800s (900 is the highest available) and has been with the same employer for over fifteen years. She is putting down 50 per cent of the cost of her home from savings. A beautiful application all the way around.

Our approval came back requiring confirmation that her cell phone bill has been paid in full. Apparently her Transunion credit report shows she is in arrears with her cell bill.

The back story was that her employer had sent her out to work one of the active fires and she was putting in long exhausting days so it was an oversight.

In view of the application I felt this was an absurd ask but the lender would not budge on it. My client was very unhappy being asked to provide this as the mortgage application was with her bank.

Another challenge was after working with clients for almost a year on their preapproval (and having reviewed their credit history ten months ago) they finally had an accepted offer. We pulled their credit history to update their application. There was now an outstanding collection that had not been there before. It was for an old student loan that they assumed had finally gone away.

Even trying to verify basic information can seem daunting. As a prime example, CRA has changed the format of the T4s that clients can pull from their My Account portal. The T4s no longer include the clients’ names. To pull from My Account clients need to do a screen shot that includes their name on the portal. This can be a royal pain for clients to access the information in a format that lenders require.

All this to be said that lately many clients have been frustrated by some of the document requests we are making. From my perspective, if we are asking to borrow hundreds of thousands of dollars I appreciate that lenders are doing their due diligence. Identity fraud and mortgage fraud are out there and in the long run cost us all money.

If you are finding yourself a bit frustrated with the process you are not alone.

There are days where I put on my helmet and flak jacket before reaching out to clients for yet another document. This week there were five days. 

Then there are the days when a particularly challenging mortgage finalizes and my clients now have keys to their dream home. Today is just such a day, and days like this remind me that persistence is worth it in the long run.