“All pages, even if they are blank…”

If you’ve purchased a home in the last several years you may have seen some version of a request like this from your processor in regards to documents needed (usually bank statements). I’ve seen some pushback from customers in regards to this request and it felt like a good question to address on a larger scale.

On the face of it, yes it’s absolutely silly that a lender would need the blank pages of a bank statement. butwhy.gif From a sales perspective it’s great to remember that we don’t want to have to request any documents that aren’t absolutely necessary. Every request we make could be the bridge too far that makes an otherwise good experience a bad one. We are acutely aware of this and want to avoid at all costs. So why do we ask for it?

It all comes down to, we don’t know what we don’t know. If we get a document that says page 1 of 10, and the document sent to us is only 6 pages long, we have no idea what’s on missing 4 pages. They may be blank, but they also may contain additional transactions that require other documentation. We simply don’t know, and therefore have to ask. This is usually the cause of the other complaint I hear often which is: “You asked for the same document multiple times!”

As always, if you have questions you can email me here or you can schedule a hassle free call here.