Thursday 4 March 2021

How to Become a Mortgage Loan Underwriter ?

While it may seem Mortgage loan processing goes through a set of procedure which helps the financial institutions in giving a clear picture about the loan payback capability of the borrower. A thorough check is being made like checking the applicant's creditworthiness, income bracket, credit score, outstanding debt, etc.


To speed up the entire procedure of the mortgage loan processing a mortgage loan underwriter is hired.

An ideal mortgage underwriter owns a master's degree in mortgage underwriting after completion of a bachelor's degree.

Duties of a Mortgage Underwriter

1. Evaluating loan applications

The mortgage loan underwriting process involves making thorough checks and evaluations of the loan applications.

2. Determining the borrower's eligibility

Before approving the mortgage loan to the borrower, the mortgage underwriter looks investigate and examine the borrower's eligibility to pay back the loan within the stipulated time.

3. Reviewing documentation

Analyzing whether all the documents submitted is true and appropriate as per the mortgage loan processing requirement is the core responsibility of a mortgage loan underwriter.

4. Determining approval status

Several conditions need to be met before giving the loan approval. Repeated reviews and analysis by evaluating the documents like income statements, credit scores and all sorts of supporting documents.

Types of mortgage underwriters

1. Manual Underwriting

Manual underwriting for a mortgage is carried out by professional and not automated software. The professional underwriter reviews the borrower's documentation, credit history, etc. The manual underwriting mortgage process takes a longer time than the automated process.

2. Contract mortgage underwriting

When financial institutions decide to outsource the mortgage underwriting services they get a chance to expand their capabilities further instead of investing their time and effort in full-time mortgage underwriting.

Outsourced mortgage underwriting services work on a contractual basis. Outsourced mortgage underwriting services company provides end-to-end service.

3. Commercial mortgage underwriting

The commercial mortgage underwriting professional looks into the commercial loan requests and determines the approval checks by looking into the level of delinquency and the level of saturation.

The higher the delinquency rate the lesser the chances to get a commercial loan approved by the mortgage loan underwriter.

Right from inception to completion, from pre-qualification checks to getting the loan approved, a mortgage loan underwriter makes fine checks before getting the loan approved.