A long post. Sorry. I was inspired The loan officer’s job is hard — really hard — especially when it comes to documentation requirements. There are guidelines, and every single deal is different. So please, don’t shoot the messenger. The more moving parts there are, the harder it gets. When a client gets pre-approved for a mortgage, here’s the problem. Most lenders don’t gather all the necessary documentation up front because it would overwhelm the client at that point, and it’s really not necessary yet. A good loan officer can identify if the deal will work based on the documentation that’s been provided. There’s nothing shady about this — it’s just the process. A good loan officer typically needs to see pay stubs, W-2s, tax returns, asset information, and credit. With that, they can run the file through the desktop underwriting system and know if the deal works. And yes — some lenders actually issue pre-approvals without verifying any documentation at all. This is incredibly unprofessional, and most people don’t realize how bad that is. That’s not a real pre-approval — it’s a pre-qualification. A good lender knows the difference and takes the time to get it right. Here’s the deal: a good loan officer will ask for everything necessary to be certain the deal will go through. If there’s a page missing or a signature missing, we don’t ask for it yet, because at that stage, it’s not necessary to put the client through all of it. But once the loan goes into processing, we’ll need everything. That’s why pre-approvals can be turned around pretty quickly — because we know what we’re looking for and we can see that it works. But let’s be clear — nothing is certain until the closing. If a borrower loses their job before the closing, that loan is done. It doesn’t matter if we already have pay stubs, W-2s, and tax returns showing what they used to make. It doesn’t matter if they used to make a million dollars and the loan amount is only $300,000. If they’re fired and now have no job, their income is zero. Period.