Playbook, mortgage broker
The question every applicant asks, and the one nothing here can see
This is the highest volume question a broker receives and it has no answerable version. The case lives on a lender's system, moves when an underwriter or a valuer decides it moves, and is visible to the adviser and to nobody else. What makes the page worth writing is that the applicant is not really asking for a status. They are asking whether the silence they are sitting in is normal, and that question can be answered honestly and in full.
Why this is not the general answer
The handling pattern for order status holds across every trade. What follows is the part that does not.
- There is no version of this the assistant can answer, because the case is on a lender's system and the material it reads is a set of documents rather than a window onto anything.
- A decision in principle is not an offer, and a large share of these messages come from somebody who believes they already have a mortgage because they hold a certificate saying they passed an initial check.
- The stage that goes quiet is nearly always the valuation, since it is instructed by the lender and carried out by somebody neither the applicant nor the broker can chase directly, and the silence is structural rather than a sign of a problem.
- The real question is whether the wait is normal, and that is entirely publishable, which makes this the rare page where refusing the question asked and answering the one underneath is the right handling.
How it arrives
- where is my mortgage application up to
- has my offer come through yet
- how long after the valuation does the offer arrive
- i have a decision in principle does that mean i am approved
- the valuation was booked a week ago and i have heard nothing
- is it normal to hear nothing for weeks
What has to be indexed for this to work
| The stages, each written as what it is waiting for | Decision in principle, full submission, valuation instructed, underwriting, offer. Describe what has to happen at each rather than how long it takes, because a stage described by its dependency reassures and a stage described by a duration becomes a promise. |
|---|---|
| What a decision in principle is and what it is not | That it is an initial check against a lender's criteria, that it is not an offer and that a full application can still be declined. Put it on its own, because it is the most common misunderstanding on a broker's site. |
| Why the valuation stage is quiet | Who instructs it, who carries it out and why neither the client nor the firm can hurry it. This is the stage that generates the chasing, and the explanation is what stops it. |
| How to get an actual case update, and what to include | Who to contact and what to give them so the answer comes back first time. The applicant will ask a person in the end, so the material should make that one exchange rather than three. |
The reply
I cannot see your application at all, and I would rather say that straight away than have you waiting on an answer from me. What I can tell you is what each stage is waiting on. After a full application goes in, the lender instructs a valuation, which is carried out by somebody neither you nor we can chase directly, and that stage is usually the quiet one [1]. Underwriting follows, and the offer is issued after that. If you are holding a decision in principle, that is an initial check rather than an offer, and the full application is still to be assessed [2]. For where yours has actually got to, leave your name, your email and the property address and an adviser will check and come back to you.
The refusal comes first and unhedged, because anything else leaves the applicant reading three sentences hoping for a status. The stage explanation answers the real question, which is whether the silence means something has gone wrong. The decision in principle correction is included whether or not it was asked, since it changes what the person thinks they have.
Where it stops
The trigger. The visitor asks about their own application in any form, names a property, a lender or an adviser, or says how long they have been waiting.
I have no way of seeing your case, so anything I said about it would be a guess. Leave your name, your email and the property address and an adviser will look and come back to you.
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 say where a case has got to, or that anything has been received, instructed, booked or issued, because none of it is visible from here.
- Never say an offer is close, due, or expected this week, since the assistant has no sight of the lender's clock and the applicant will hold the firm to it.
- Never call a decision in principle an approval, an offer, or a guarantee that the money is there.
- Never explain a delay by guessing at a cause, because the reason sits on a file nobody here can open and a wrong guess becomes a complaint.
Questions
- This is our most asked question. Can it be answered at all?
- Not as asked. It cannot see a case, cannot connect to a lender and cannot look anybody up. What it can do is explain what each stage is waiting on, which is what the applicant actually wants to know, and then take the details so somebody can check.
- Does explaining the stages reduce the chasing, or only delay it?
- It reduces it, mostly at the valuation stage. Somebody who knows the valuation is instructed by the lender and carried out by a third party stops reading two weeks of quiet as a problem, and that is where most of the repeat messages come from.
- Could we connect it to our case system so it can answer properly?
- Not through this. It reads documents you give it and cites them, and it has no connection to case management, to a lender or to anything else. The honest design here is a good explanation and a fast handover, not a status lookup that does not exist.
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 order status in generalThe most asked question in retail support and the one a document-based assistant cannot answer. What it can do instead, and where handover sits.
- The work between a first conversation and anything reaching a lenderThe fact find, the consent to a credit search and the document gather. A product transfer, a remortgage and a purchase run it at three lengths.
- What a broker charges, and what a lender charges, kept apartIndexed rate material is the fastest rotting content a broker can publish. How to answer what rate can i get without repeating last month's.
- Getting an initial call arranged without touching the calendarThe assistant cannot take a slot. It can remove every reason somebody hesitates to book one, then hand a warm enquiry to an adviser.
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.