The hits just keep on comin’, don’t they? Day after day, week after week, interest rates hover at historic lows and loan applications hit record levels. That’s great for you, right? Low rates, low payments, less interest. That is unless you can't talk to your loan officer or processor. High loan volume also means lots of loan customers, and lots of frustration trying to reach your mortgage company. How do you speak to who you want to speak to... when you want to speak to them? Maybe you can’t, but maybe there’s another way.

You know the drill alright, you want to check on the status of your loan application but it seems like eternity since you’ve ever heard from your loan officer. Not only that, but you’ve probably even forgotten the sound of his voice. It sounds feint, but barely recognizable. All you can get is voicemail. If only your loan officer knew why you were calling them in the first place they would call you back immediately, such as an inheritance, a new job or even your birthday. Who knows how important it is, but if you can’t contact them how do you know if your birthday is important or not?

Your mortgage application goes through a typical flow, regardless of which lender you choose. When you make a loan application, you’re usually dealing directly with a loan officer. In fact, that loan officer has to record how the application was actually taken, face to face interview, over the telephone or through the mail (bet you didn’t know that) before turning the loan over to underwriting.

After taking the loan application and gathering the standard fare of paycheck stubs or W2s the file is given to a loan processor who verifies, documents and collects information about the file. At that point, it goes to an underwriter. So far that’s three people you might need to contact, but all you can get is their voicemail. How do you make sure you’re always in the loop?

Demand to know everyone’s email address in the transaction, and include them in all of your correspondence. Forget the phone.

That sounds fairly obvious, doesn’t it? But in fact email is one of the venues that customers sometimes don’t use. Think about it for a moment. When you have a question and you want to talk to your loan officer, you want to talk with them, right? Not leave a message. But if you email that loan officer instead, you know for a fact that your message was read. But the trick isn’t just emailing your loan officer....you need to copy your loan processor on the same message as well. Even if your loan processor has a question for you, when you respond, copy the loan officer. And if you can get the underwriters email address, copy that person as well.

For instance, you notice on your Good Faith Estimate that your loan officer included Escrow or Impound accounts with your monthly payment. Instead of leaving a voicemail, hoping it gets answered and not deleted, send an email copying everyone, including yourself. And ask for a confirmation that they understand your situation. There you have written documentation of your request and of your reply. Emails get read, voice mails get lost. And Happy Birthday.

Published: January 31, 2003

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, a veteran Mortgage Banker, successful Real Estate Consultant and author of Your Guide to VA Loans, Mortgages 101: Quick Answers to Over 250 Critical Questions About Your Home Loan, Who Says You Can't Buy a Home!, and Mortgage Confidential: What You Need to Know That Your Lender Won't Tell You, is a former columnist and Contributing Editor with San Diego-based Mortgage Originator Magazine. Reed is President of CD Reed Mortgage Bankers, Austin, TX and is a Past President of the Austin Mortgage Bankers Association.