Questions to Ask Lenders as a Realtor
For real estate agents deciding which loan officers and mortgage lenders belong on the short list they hand to buyers. These questions to ask lenders as a realtor follow the order of a first sit-down: what stands behind their pre-approval letters, how long their closings take, which difficult buyers and properties they can lend on, how you and the buyer hear about progress, what they do when a loan is in trouble, and what working together would involve. Bring a real case or two from your own files, because a lender's answer about one specific buyer is easier to check later than a general promise.
The questions
Each question, and why to ask it
Pre-approvals
What do you verify before you put your name on a pre-approval letter?
Why ask it
The answer you want is a list of documents: pay stubs, tax returns, bank statements, a credit pull. If the letter can go out on what the buyer said over the phone, treat it as a pre-qualification whatever it is called, and ask what it would take to get the stronger version.
Does an underwriter review the file before your letter goes out, or is it your own read of it?
Why ask it
Neither answer is wrong, but the two letters carry different weight. One that rests on an automated approval and the loan officer's judgment is only as good as their habit of asking for the awkward documents early. The useful detail is which buyers they always send to an underwriter first: the self-employed, the commission-paid, the ones who changed jobs this year.
Of the buyers you pre-approved in the past year who went under contract, how many did not close, and why?
Why ask it
Nobody honest says zero. The reasons matter more than the count: a job lost after the contract was signed is outside anyone's control, while undisclosed debt or income that was never documented points back at the pre-approval. A lender who cannot recall a single case is either new or not keeping track.
Will you call the listing agent when my buyer's offer goes in?
Why ask it
With several offers on the table, a lender who phones the other side and says what has been verified can separate yours from one at the same price. Ask what they say on that call and what they hold back, since the buyer's finances are not theirs to share freely.
Can I get a letter matched to each offer's price without the buyer having to call you?
Why ask it
A letter showing the buyer's full ceiling tells the seller how much room is left in your offer. Some lenders give agents an app or portal that issues letters up to a cap, and others want a text each time. Find out who sets the cap and whether the buyer has to agree to you requesting letters on their behalf.
Do you offer an approval that is fully underwritten before the buyer has found a house?
Why ask it
Lenders name this differently, so ask what theirs is called and exactly what stays open once it is issued, which is usually the appraisal, the title work and a last look at income and credit. It is worth requesting for any buyer who will compete against cash, as long as you know how many days it adds up front.
What do you check again between the letter and closing day?
Why ask it
Many lenders look at credit and employment a second time shortly before closing, and a car payment that appears at that point can undo the loan. Find out when those checks happen and what the lender tells buyers about them, so your warning and theirs match.
When have you declined to write a letter for a buyer an agent sent you?
Why ask it
The point is to find a lender who will say no to you. One who has never turned a referral down is either lucky or writing letters to keep agents happy, and the second kind costs you a contract later. A good story ends with the agent hearing a clear 'not yet' early, before any showings were booked.
Do you qualify buyers at the most they can borrow, or at the payment they told you they can live with?
Why ask it
A buyer approved to the limit who goes pale at the monthly figure will stall on you after the third showing. A lender who talks payment first hands you a price range the buyer will act on. Check whether the payment they quote includes property taxes, insurance and any association dues.
Turn times
How long is it taking you right now to get from a signed contract to clear to close?
Why ask it
Turn times move with volume, so last spring's number tells you little and this month's is the one to write down. Whichever stage they name as the slow one at the moment, whether appraisal, underwriting or clearing conditions, is the stage to watch on your own files.
Of your last twenty purchase loans, how many closed on the date in the original contract?
Why ask it
A small, recent sample is harder to round up than 'almost always'. For the ones that moved, ask whose side the delay was on. A lender who blames the buyer, the appraiser and the title company every time is unlikely to warn you early when the cause is in their own shop.
What is the shortest closing you would commit to on a clean file, and what makes a file clean in your eyes?
Why ask it
This sets how aggressive a closing date you can write into an offer. The second half matters as much as the first: if 'clean' means salaried, conventional and a large down payment, the fast timeline does not cover many of your buyers. Get the realistic figure for the loan types you see most.
Who orders the appraisal, how soon after contract, and what can you do when appraisers are backed up?
Why ask it
The appraisal is the step a lender controls least, so the useful part is what they do around it: ordering on the day the contract is signed, paying for a rush, knowing which properties might qualify for a waiver. How appraisers are assigned differs by lender and loan type, so ask how it works with theirs.
Are processing and underwriting in your building, and can you get the underwriter on the phone?
Why ask it
A loan officer who can walk a question down the hall settles in an hour what takes others three days of email. If underwriting sits elsewhere or is outsourced, what matters is how a question reaches the underwriter and how long the reply usually takes to come back.
How many files are you carrying this month, and who helps you with them?
Why ask it
Every loan officer has a volume at which they get slow, and you are trying to learn how close this one is to it. A high number with a processor and an assistant can be fine, while the same number handled alone means unreturned calls in a busy month. Ask to meet whoever will actually touch your buyer's file.
What do you need from me on the day a contract is signed?
Why ask it
Usually it is the executed contract, the details of the title or closing office, and the key dates. Having their list now means the first day is not lost to back-and-forth. Pass it to your transaction coordinator if you have one.
When do your buyers get their final closing figures, and how do you keep that step from pushing the date?
Why ask it
In many places a waiting period runs between the final disclosure and the signing, and a late change can restart it. Ask the lender how the rule works where you are and how many days ahead they aim to send the figures. A team that sends them at the last permitted moment leaves no room for a correction.
How soon do the loan documents reach the closing office, and who chases what is missing?
Why ask it
Closers know which lenders send documents the afternoon before and which send them an hour ahead of the signing. Get the lender's usual lead time, then ask a title or closing officer you trust whether that matches what arrives.
Hard files
Which loan types do you close every month, and which have you done only a handful of times?
Why ask it
Every lender says they offer everything. Volume is what tells you whether they know the traps in a government-backed loan or a jumbo. Match the answer to your own buyers, and keep a second name for the loan types this one rarely handles.
Tell me about the last self-employed buyer you got to closing. What did that file need?
Why ask it
A story beats a policy here. Listen for how many years of returns they asked for, how they treated write-offs, and whether they spotted the problem before or after the buyer was under contract. If the lender has alternatives for income that does not show on a tax return, ask what those cost the buyer in rate and down payment.
What is the lowest credit score you will take, and do you add requirements of your own on top of the program's?
Why ask it
Two lenders offering the same loan program can have different floors, because some add their own rules above the program minimum. Knowing this lender's floor saves you from sending a buyer who is turned away and then assumes nobody can help.
What do you do with a buyer who cannot qualify today?
Why ask it
The good answer is a plan with a date on it: which debts to pay down, what to stop doing, when to check back in. A lender who works with those buyers for six months sends you a client who is ready, and usually a loyal one. 'Call me when your score is up' sends you nobody.
How many down payment assistance loans have you closed lately, and how much time do they add?
Why ask it
Assistance programs are local, each with its own approval step and paperwork, and a lender who rarely does them learns on your buyer's clock. Ask which specific programs they are approved for in your area and how you should set the closing date when one is involved.
How do you handle a condo, and who decides whether the building passes?
Why ask it
A condo loan can fail on the building while the buyer is fine: the budget, the insurance, the share of rented units, a pending lawsuit. The lenders worth having send the questionnaire to the association in the first days of the contract, and some will check a building before your buyer writes an offer.
Can you lend on a house that needs work, sits on acreage, or is a manufactured home?
Why ask it
Each of those is a property problem, and plenty of lenders quietly avoid one or more of them. Take the answers one at a time and write them down. If renovation loans are on the menu, ask how many they closed last year, since those have more moving parts than nearly anything else.
What can you do for a buyer who has to sell their current home to buy the next one?
Why ask it
Options vary widely: counting the current home as sold once it is under contract, a bridge loan, a loan against the equity, or nothing at all. Get the cost of each one they name and what they need to see for it, because that decides whether you can write an offer with no sale contingency.
How do you count income from a new job, commission, overtime or a recent change of field?
Why ask it
These are the buyers whose pre-approvals come apart, because how much history is needed depends on the loan and the lender. Describe a real client of yours without the name and ask how they would treat it. The questions they ask you back are the test.
Updates
Once we are under contract, how will you keep me updated, and how often?
Why ask it
A good answer is a routine: a set day each week, or a message at each milestone such as appraisal ordered, appraisal in, conditional approval and clear to close. 'Call me any time' means you will be the one chasing. Say which channel you prefer and see whether they agree to it.
Who covers your files when you are away or cannot be reached?
Why ask it
Loans do not pause for a vacation or a sick day. You want a named person who can open the file and issue a letter, not a voicemail greeting with a return date. Get that person's number at the same time as the loan officer's.
If I text you at seven on a Saturday evening for an updated letter, what happens next?
Why ask it
Offers get written on weekend afternoons and Sunday nights, and a scenario gets a truer answer than 'I'm always available'. What you need to hear is how it gets done: an app on their phone, an assistant on call, a letter in your inbox inside the hour. Hesitation is fine as long as it ends in an honest time.
When something goes wrong in a file, do I hear about it that day or once you have a fix?
Why ask it
You want the same day, even with no solution attached, because an extension is a small request a week out and a large one the night before. Lenders who wait for the fix mean well and still leave you hearing it first from the listing agent. Some will agree to a standing check-in about ten days before closing, where they say plainly whether the date holds.
What can you share with me about a buyer's file, and what stays between you and the buyer?
Why ask it
A lender has privacy duties to the borrower, and what they may pass on, and with what consent, depends on where you work and on their company. Ask how they handle it. A reasonable arrangement is that you hear status and deadlines, and anything about the buyer's finances comes with the buyer's say-so.
Do you keep the listing agent informed as well, or should that come through me?
Why ask it
Some lenders send milestone updates to both sides, which calms a nervous seller and saves you forwarding emails. Others see it as the buyer's agent's job. Either works if you settle it now. What fails is each of you assuming the other did it.
How do you explain the process to a first-time buyer, and what do you warn them not to do?
Why ask it
Ask to see what they send: a checklist, a short video, a one-page timeline. The warnings should cover new credit, job changes made without a call, and large deposits nobody can explain. A buyer who hears this from the lender on day one is one fewer emergency for you in week four.
Problems
When an appraisal comes in under the contract price, what do you do in the first day?
Why ask it
A practiced lender calls you before the buyer panics, explains whether a reconsideration is possible and what evidence it needs, and reruns the numbers for each way out: more cash down, a lower price, or a split. Ask how their past appeals have gone so you do not promise a client one.
What do you do when the appraiser calls for repairs before the loan can close?
Why ask it
Some loan types are stricter about a property's condition than others, and a missing handrail or peeling paint can become a condition of the loan. Find out who tells you, how the re-inspection gets booked and what it costs the buyer. The better lenders will also say before the offer whether a house is likely to draw a repair list on the loan your buyer is using.
If underwriting adds a condition in the week of closing, who calls me and what happens next?
Why ask it
Late conditions come up often enough that a lender should have a drill for them. The answer to hope for names a person, a same-day call and a deadline for the buyer's documents. If the reply is that this does not happen on their files, put the same question to the processor.
If we renegotiate the price or a seller credit after the inspection, how fast can you rework the loan?
Why ask it
A new price or a credit toward the buyer's costs means new figures and sometimes a second look from underwriting, and many loan programs limit how much a seller may contribute. Get the limit for your buyer's loan before you write the addendum, along with what the lender needs from you in writing. A credit larger than the loan allows may be money your buyer negotiated and cannot use.
If closing slips, what happens to the buyer's rate lock, and who pays to extend it?
Why ask it
Extension costs, and who absorbs them, depend on the lender and on whose delay it was, so get the policy in their words. A lender who covers the cost when the fault is theirs is showing you how they treat their own mistakes.
If your underwriter turns a loan down late, is there anywhere else you can take it?
Why ask it
A broker may be able to move the file to another wholesale lender, while a bank loan officer may have one set of rules and no second door. Neither rules a lender out, but it tells you which one to pick for the borderline buyer. A move like that takes time, so get the number of days it has cost them before and size your extension request to it.
Who do I call above you when a file is stuck and you cannot get it moving?
Why ask it
Ask for a name and a number now, while relations are good. A lender who gives it without flinching is confident in their own shop. You will rarely use it, and having it changes how the worst week of a transaction goes.
What went wrong on one of your files in the past year that was your own doing, and what did you change?
Why ask it
Anyone who closes loans has one: a missed document, a misread tax return, a lock that lapsed. The lender you can refer to owns it in plain words and names the fix. Deflecting onto the buyer or the processor here predicts how they will talk about the next problem you share.
Partnership
Are you with a bank, a broker shop or a direct lender, and what does that mean for the buyers I send?
Why ask it
Each model trades off product range, control over underwriting and pricing, and the lender will give you the flattering half. Ask what their model is worst at. An honest answer there is worth more than the pitch.
How long have you been a loan officer, and what kinds of market have you worked through?
Why ask it
Years alone prove little, but someone who has only worked while rates were falling and files were easy has not yet had the practice you are counting on. Listen for a stretch when money was tight or volume was frantic, and for what they did differently. A newer loan officer with a strong team behind them can still be a good referral if you know who checks their work.
Where are you licensed to lend, and does that cover everywhere my buyers are likely to look?
Why ask it
Licensing and registration work differently from place to place, and there is usually a public register where you can confirm a loan officer's status and see any disciplinary history. Look them up before you refer. The coverage matters most when your clients shop across a border the lender cannot follow them over, or relocate to you from somewhere else.
How much of your business is purchases, and how much is refinancing?
Why ask it
A purchase loan runs on a contract deadline with a seller waiting, and a refinance does not. A lender whose work is mostly refinances may be excellent at the math and unused to the urgency. The telling detail is what gives in their week when purchase volume climbs: the refinances wait, or your updates do.
When my buyers compare your quote with another lender's, how do you usually come out?
Why ask it
You do not need the cheapest lender in town, but you cannot refer one who is far off the market either, because the buyer will find out and wonder about you. A straight answer sounds like 'close on rate, a bit higher on fees, and here is what the fee buys'.
Which agents who closed with you this year can I call, including one from the listing side?
Why ask it
A buyer's agent who refers them will be kind. A listing agent who sat on the other end of their file has no reason to be, and will tell you whether the updates came and the date held. Call both, and ask each what they would warn you about.
What do you hope to get from working with me?
Why ask it
Some lenders want referrals back, some want a seat at your open houses, some want joint advertising. Hearing it early lets you say what you can and cannot do. What agents and lenders may give each other is regulated in many places, so run any arrangement past your broker before agreeing to it.
If one of my buyers already has a lender, will you look over their quote without pushing to take the file?
Why ask it
A lender who gives a quick, fair second opinion is useful to you even on deals they do not win. Watch how they talk about the competitor: pointing out a missing fee is help, while running the other lender down is a sales call your client did not ask for.
How do you stay in touch with my clients after they close?
Why ask it
Past clients are where repeat business comes from, and a lender mailing them every quarter is either reinforcing your name or replacing it. Ask whether their follow-up mentions you, and whether they would send those clients to another agent when it is time to sell.
How to vet a lender before you refer a buyer
Practical guidance for the conversation itself
Before you sit down
Meet more than one
Interview two or three lenders of different kinds: a loan officer at a local bank or credit union, an independent mortgage broker, someone at a larger mortgage company. Their strengths differ, and a short list that covers different buyers is more use to you than a single favorite. It also means a buyer who asks for options gets real ones.
Do the lookups first
Before the meeting, confirm the loan officer's license or registration on whatever public register your area uses, read their reviews with a skeptical eye, and ask one closing officer and one agent in your office what they have seen. Then the meeting can go to things only the lender can tell you.
Bring two real files
Pick one past buyer who was easy and one who was hard, strip out the names, and describe each. Ask how the lender would have handled them. Abstract questions get brochure answers, while a commission-paid buyer with a new job and a gifted down payment gets a real one.
Cut the list to fit a coffee
A loan officer will give you half an hour over coffee, which is not enough for this whole page. Take three or four questions from Pre-approvals and Turn times, two from each of the other groups, and keep the rest for a follow-up call or for the first file you share.
Checking what you were told
Call the other side of their deals
The most useful reference is a listing agent who received an offer backed by this lender. Ask whether the lender phoned to introduce the buyer, whether updates arrived without prompting, and whether the closing date held.
Ask a closing officer
Title and closing staff see every lender's documents arrive, early or late, complete or not. They tend to be careful about criticizing anyone, so put it as a preference: which lenders make their week easier?
Start with one buyer
Send a single straightforward buyer first, tell the lender that is what you are doing, and keep notes: how fast the first call happened, whether the letter matched what was promised, how many times you had to ask for an update. One shared file teaches you more than the interview did.
Test the weekend promise once
Before you rely on Saturday availability with an offer deadline running, try it on something small, such as a payment estimate for an open house. A reply within the hour tells you the promise is real. Silence until Monday tells you which lender to call on weekdays only.
Referring fairly
Give buyers a choice
Offer two or three names and say why each is on the list. The buyer picks the lender, and a buyer who chose takes a hiccup differently from one who was steered. Your brokerage may have its own policy on how lenders are recommended, so ask.
Know the rules on what changes hands
Payments, gifts, shared advertising and referral arrangements between agents and lenders are restricted in many places, and the details differ by jurisdiction and by brokerage. Before you accept a co-branded flyer or a sponsored lunch, ask your broker what is allowed and what has to be disclosed.
Vouch for service, not numbers
Tell buyers what you have seen: this lender returned calls on a Sunday, that one closed a difficult condo file. Leave rates, loan terms and what a buyer can afford to the lender, who is the one licensed to quote them.
Welcome the buyer's own lender
When a buyer arrives with a loan officer you have never worked with, run a short version of this list by phone: what was verified for the letter, who answers on a weekend, how you will hear about progress. It is the same vetting done in ten minutes, and it starts the relationship on the right foot.
Keeping your list current
Keep score by file
After each closing, write down three things: whether the date held, whether you heard about problems from the lender before anyone else, and whether the buyer would use them again. A year of those notes is better evidence than anyone's reputation.
Raise a problem before you drop someone
If a good lender has a bad file, say so plainly and ask what happened. How they respond is the same test as the questions under Problems, only now with a real case in front of you both.
Ask again after a move
A loan officer who changes companies brings their habits but not their underwriters, their loan products or their turn times. Go back through Turn times and Hard files after any move, and again when their workload swings between refinances and purchases.