Amelia works at head office processing commercial mortgages for a range of businesses like shops and factories. As well as all the admin, she also keeps an eye on the commercial property market.
My job as a mortgage processor is to help process mortgages which basically means that I help and support mortgage underwriters (an underwriter decides if you are eligible to receive a mortgage based on your application). This could be support with submitting manual credit scores, or tracking cases.
Specifically, I currently support our commercial lending team - these are the guys that will lend money for people wanting to buy retail units, warehouses or even homes to let.
My current role in commercial I have been doing since November 2019, however I have been a mortgage processor in various other parts of the business since March 2017.
I enjoy most aspects of my job but most of all I really love the freedom it gives me. I’m able to manage myself and take care of work as it comes in, deciding what has highest priority.
I also really enjoy the challenges and the learning curve that comes with commercial mortgages as it is relatively new to me so this role really challenges what I know and is helping me learn more about the wider world of mortgages.
I arrive at work shortly before 9.00am as I like to get all my systems up and running, which can take a few minutes. Whilst I’m waiting for stuff to load I’ll multitask between eating breakfast and answering emails that I can quickly reply to.
Most of my work is supplied through email, so I like to have a look through my inbox first thing to see what I’ll need to do that day. Generally I’ll write down what I need to do in a day as this helps me stay organised, so I take notes as I go, and also put anything else on the list I think I’ll need to do today. Once the systems are fully loaded I’ll go through our commercial worklist, and check to see if yesterday’s case documents have been scanned on yet, and close them off the worklists as I see them.
Around 10.00am the post arrives which is good news because I expect the valuations report from our commercial surveyors. They normally send three copies so I band two together, attach a note with their account number and the property address, and file them away in our filing system. The other copy I’ll send to our scanning team so we have an electronic copy on file. Any other letters from the post I will open and read, and see where they need to go. The majority are letters from solicitors regarding commercial cases, so I’ll send those to be scanned on as well. Once I’ve done all my odd jobs I start on the commercial mortgage applications. These take a while to type up, so I like to get all the little things out of the way first. As the applications are really detailed I take my time with them, so it’ll take me about an hour to an hour and a half depending on how many there are.
I also have to print all the documents that the brokers send to us with the application. Generally, cases average about 5-10 documents and all of these need to be scanned on to our systems. Once they’ve all been printed I then manually go through the documents, give them an account number and the correct correspondence code (so they will scanned under the correct section) and send them to scanning. After all that I tend to have a look through my inbox and see if there are any more emails I can answer quickly. I also need to sort out the customer offers and send out the solicitors’ panel application before the post goes at 3.30pm.
With the customer offers, you get four copies of the KFI (Key Facts Information document which outlines all the details of their mortgage offer) and then various other letters and documents that all need to be packaged correctly and sent out. This also includes the relevant terms and conditions booklet for the company type (Ltd company, partnership or sole-trader), as well as booklets on their valuation report and fees and any other special documents unique to that case. The customer, the mortgage broker and the solicitor all receive this pack and each one takes around fifteen minutes to complete.
In commercial we revalue our properties every three years to key an eye on the market. Every single commercial property is saved on a shared spreadsheet, and is updated every couple of weeks by another team in terms of loan amount and LTV (loan to value, which is the percentage of money lent against the value of the property). It’s my job today to go through this list and see which properties are due for a valuation within set criteria. Finally, I usually do one last check of my email before heading home at 5.00pm.
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