When a Phone Number Matters for a Conventional Loan

This quick post is to share a tidbit of information and learning based on the recent experience we've had.

When working on a conventional loan, the phone numbers you use in your loan application matter.

We've been working with a lender we have used many times and with whom we have several conventional loans for our rental properties. Needless to say, they know us relatively well. When submitting our loan application, we used our cell phone, the only phone we have and listed that as both our personal and professional phone number.

That triggered the lender to ask us for a "letter from employer verifying borrower has no ownership in the company"... Confused, we reached out to the lender asking for more information about what this meant and what the specific request was. Yes, we currently still have income from W2s, but was the request for those employers or for our real estate company, in which case then obviously we are owners.

They informed us that if we had ownership in "the company," it would change how they need to underwrite this loan. 

We pushed back some and were successful. Here's what the lender did to correct the flag on their end: they change the application so that our home/cell number did not match our work number, and it "cleared everything up"...

It would have been pretty complicated and time-consuming to find someone at our W2 who could provide such verification. So we pushed back. Always ask and push back if it does not make sense; there is always more flexibility than you might think.