Playbook, mortgage broker
The document list that decides how fast a mortgage case runs
The paperwork for a mortgage application is more demanding than most applicants expect and considerably more specific: not payslips, but the last three, not a bank statement, but the ones covering the period the deposit arrived in. This list does not move with the market, it applies to almost every applicant, and it is the strongest single determinant of whether a case runs quickly. It is also, unglamorously, the best thing on a broker's site to hand to an assistant.
Why this is not the general answer
The handling pattern for first visit questions holds across every trade. What follows is the part that does not.
- The documents required differ by income type rather than by product, so an employed applicant, a contractor and a self employed applicant need three different lists off the same website.
- Deposit evidence carries a source of funds requirement that surprises people, particularly where a gift from family is involved, and it is the item most often missing at the point it holds up a case.
- Every document has a period attached to it, and an applicant who brings the wrong months has effectively brought nothing.
- Unlike rate and criteria material, this content is stable, which makes it the safest thing on a broker's site to index and the thing most worth keeping complete.
How it arrives
- what documents do i need for a mortgage application
- how many payslips do you need
- what do you need if i am self employed
- how do i prove where my deposit came from
- do you need bank statements and how many months
- what if my parents are gifting the deposit
What has to be indexed for this to work
| The document checklist, split by income type | Employed, self employed, company director, contractor, and anybody with variable or multiple income. Each needs its own list with the periods spelled out, because a single combined list is read wrongly by everybody who is not the first case on it. |
|---|---|
| Deposit evidence and source of funds requirements | What you need to see, the period it must cover, and what is required where the deposit is a gift, including whatever declaration the lender expects. This is the item that holds up cases, and it is entirely explainable in advance. |
| Identification and proof of address requirements | Which documents are accepted, whether originals or certified copies are needed, and what to do when somebody's documents do not match their current address. High volume, entirely factual, and asked in every case. |
| How the process runs from the first call to completion | Initial conversation, decision in principle, full application, valuation, offer, exchange, completion, and what each stage is waiting on. Most anxious questions later in a case are really questions about which stage is normal. |
The reply
It depends on how you are paid. If you are employed we normally need your last three payslips, your most recent bank statements covering the period the deposit landed, photographic identification and a proof of address. If you are self employed the payslips are replaced by accounts or tax calculations for the last two years. Deposit evidence is the one that most often holds cases up, particularly where family are gifting it, so it is worth getting that together early. Our documents page has the full list for each situation.
It asks the income question implicitly by answering both branches, so an applicant who has not said which they are still gets their answer. Naming deposit evidence as the usual bottleneck is the sentence that changes behaviour, and it costs nothing to say. It ends by pointing at the maintained page rather than trying to be exhaustive, which keeps the reply readable.
Where it stops
The trigger. The visitor asks whether a document they have will be acceptable, or describes an unusual income or deposit arrangement to find out what they need.
Whether a particular document works depends on the lender, so I do not want to tell you something that turns out not to be enough. Leave your name and email and an adviser will confirm exactly what is needed for your situation.
It stops answering before it guesses, says who will pick it up, and asks for the one thing that makes a reply possible. Nothing about it reads as a dead end.
Never say this here
Out of bounds
- Never confirm that a document an applicant describes will satisfy a lender.
- Never say a gifted deposit will be accepted, or on what terms.
- Never suggest a missing document can be supplied later without affecting the case.
- Never state a period for a document that differs from your published checklist.
Questions
- Is this really the highest value thing to index?
- On a broker's site, yes. It is asked before every case, it applies to nearly every applicant, it does not move with the market, and applicants who arrive with the right paperwork are the ones whose cases complete quickly.
- Lenders differ on documents. Does that break it?
- It means the list should be written as what your firm needs in order to start, not as what a lender will finally require. The assistant states your list and hands over the moment somebody asks whether their particular document counts.
- Can it receive the documents?
- No. It cannot accept files or write into any system. It tells somebody what to gather and takes a name, an email and a message, and the documents go through whatever secure route you already use.
Keep reading
- Everything for a mortgage brokerProcess, documents and fees are safe to automate. Rates go stale fast and affordability cannot be answered generically.
- Handling first visit questions in generalWhat to wear, where to park, how long it takes, whether they can bring somebody. Cheap to answer and disproportionately valuable.
- Erasure requests, and the records a broker may still have to keepMortgage enquiries leave unusually sensitive records in several places. What the assistant explains about erasure, and what it must not promise.
- How much can i borrow, and why it goes straight to a personAffordability is assessed lender by lender, and a figure from a widget gets repeated to an estate agent. The trigger and the wording.
- Four separate bills, and a visitor trying to total themThe broker fee, the lender's product fee, the valuation fee and the conveyancing arrive from different places, and only one of them is ours.
Try it on your own material
Upload a document or point it at your site, paste one line of HTML, then ask it something only your business could answer.