FREE Lender Readiness Quiz

The questions

Eleven quick questions covering exactly what a lender is going to ask you, and whether you have it to hand. Your full answer appears right here on the page — a list of what to gather before you call, so the first conversation is the useful one.

1. What is the loan for?
2. Can you lay hands on two years of tax returns and recent pay stubs?
   Self-employed or on commission? Expect two full years and probably a profit-and-loss.
3. Two months of statements for every account the deposit comes from?
   Every account it passes through, not only the one it ends in — that is the part that surprises people.
4. Photo ID and Social Security number ready?
5. Is any of the deposit a gift from family?
   Not a problem at all — but a gift needs a letter and a paper trail, and finding that out late costs a week.
6. Any large deposits in the last two months that are not payroll?
   A lender asks about every one. Having the answer ready is the whole trick.
7. Do you know roughly where your credit stands?
   Roughly is enough. You can pull your own reports free at annualcreditreport.com, the site the federal rules set up.
8. Do you know what your monthly obligations add up to?
   Car, student loans, cards, child support. A lender works from the total, not from what is left over.
9. How long have you been in your current line of work?
10. Anything in the last few years a lender would want explained?
    A bankruptcy, a foreclosure, a short sale, a stretch of late payments. None of these are the end of it — they just need a date and a sentence.
11. Do you know you can compare more than one lender?
    Rate quotes within a short window count as a single credit enquiry, so comparing two or three costs you nothing.

What it can tell you

Every answer this check gives, in full — one of them is yours once you have answered. Nothing here is held back for a sign-up.

1. Gather a few things first — it will save you a week

   The conversation will go better with the paperwork in hand. Everything below is a document you already have somewhere; a first call without them ends in a list rather than a letter, and the list is always the same list.

2. Paperwork is ready — now find out where you stand

   You can produce what they ask for, which is most of it. What is left is knowing your own position before somebody else tells you: pull your credit reports, add up the monthly obligations, and have a sentence ready for anything in the past that needs one. None of that costs anything, and it changes how the call goes.

3. Ready — make the call

   Documents in hand and a clear picture of your own position. That is a first call that ends in a pre-approval letter rather than a to-do list. Compare two or three and look at the Loan Estimates side by side — they are on a standard form precisely so they can be compared.