Median contract to clear-to-close
22 days
Last 12 months, my pipeline. Sample
Richmond, Virginia
A broker reads the whole panel. A bank reads one page.
I am Jordan Hayes. I take your file to thirty-one wholesale lenders, compare them on net cost rather than headline rate, and show you the working.
Jordan Hayes · NMLS #XXXXXXXHe talked me out of it the first time.
Heather L., The Fan · refinance
Programmes on the panel
The record, in four numbers
Figures from my own pipeline. Sample data for this demonstration site.
- 1,240Richmond-area loans closed since 2014Sample
- 22 daysMedian contract to clear-to-close, last 12 monthsSample
- 31Wholesale lenders on the panelSample
- 96%Files that closed on or before the contract dateSample
Tool 01
Refinance break-even model
Closing costs divided by the monthly saving gives the month you turn positive. Everything else is commentary. Move the inputs and watch the month move.
You break even in22 months
| Option | Payment | Total interest |
|---|---|---|
| Keep the current loan | — | — |
| New loan, fresh 30 years | — | — |
| New loan, same finishing date | — | — |
- Monthly saving, fresh 30
- —
- Lifetime interest change, fresh 30
- —
- Monthly change, same finishing date
- —
- Lifetime interest change, same date
- —
Sample output. Not an offer or a commitment to lend. Your loan estimate carries the real figures.
Costs divided by monthly saving is the whole model
Everything else is commentary. On the defaults above, $4,400 of closing costs against a $304 monthly saving breaks even in month 15. Before month 15 the refinance has cost you money.
Compare the same finishing date
A fresh 30-year term on a loan with 26 years left lowers the payment partly by stretching the debt. The term-preserving column shows what the same rate does when the loan still finishes in 26 years.
Lifetime interest is the second number
A lower payment with a longer term can still cost more in total interest. Both figures matter, and which one you weight depends on how long you will keep the house.
Lender credits move the break-even, not the rate
Taking a slightly higher rate in exchange for a credit toward costs shortens the break-even dramatically. On a file you expect to refinance again within three years, that is usually the better trade.
Lock desk
Lock terms are priced in points, and nobody tells you that
A 45-day lock is not the same product as a 15-day lock at a different expiry. It costs more, because the lender hedges your rate for longer. Here is the spread, on a $340,000 loan.
Base price. Every other term is quoted as a spread from this one.
- Cost on a $340,000 loan
- $0 Sample
Use it when: The file is already clear to close and the settlement date is inside two weeks.
Avoid it when: Anything is outstanding. A 15-day lock that expires costs more than a 30-day lock that did not.
The default for a refinance and for a purchase with a firm closing date.
- Cost on a $340,000 loan
- $425 Sample
Use it when: Appraisal is ordered, income is verified and the contract date is three to four weeks out.
Avoid it when: The appraisal has not been ordered. Richmond appraisal turn times run 8 to 14 days in season.
The realistic purchase lock in a normal Richmond market.
- Cost on a $340,000 loan
- $850 Sample
Use it when: New contract, appraisal not yet back, or a file with self-employment income to document.
Avoid it when: You are refinancing with a value acceptance offer and nothing left to verify.
Long locks carry the cost of the lender hedging your rate for two months.
- Cost on a $340,000 loan
- $1,275 Sample
Use it when: New construction with a firm delivery date, or a contingent sale with a defined settlement.
Avoid it when: The delivery date is a guess. A 60-day lock on a house finishing 'sometime in spring' will expire.
30-day lock
Read the full lock and float-down guide
Extensions are priced by the day, not by the week
A typical extension runs 0.03 points per day, billed in blocks. Seven days on a $340,000 loan is roughly $714. Extensions are cumulative, and most desks cap them at 30 days before the lock must be re-priced.
A blown lock is re-priced at worse of
If the lock expires, the lender re-prices at the worse of the original lock price or current market. You never get the benefit of a market that improved while you were expired, so the discipline is to lock long enough the first time.
Float-down is an option you buy, not a right
Most wholesale desks offer one float-down per loan, exercisable once between lock and clear-to-close. The usual trigger is a market improvement of at least 0.250% in the base rate, and the cost is around 0.125 points added at exercise.
The float-down window closes before you think
Float-down normally has to be exercised at least 7 days before closing and after the file is out of underwriting. Ask for the exact deadline the day you lock, and put it in your calendar.
Re-locking after a cancellation carries a penalty
Break a lock at one desk and move the file elsewhere and you may face a 30 to 60 day cooling period at the original lender. Broker files can move, but it is not free, so we choose the desk carefully the first time.
Locking is a decision about risk, not a prediction
Nobody at any desk knows where rates go next. The question is what happens to your budget if the rate moves half a point against you before closing. If the answer is that the purchase fails, lock.
Underwriting
The two calculations that decide most Richmond files
Almost every file that stalls stalls on one of these. Neither is complicated. Both are done badly by people in a hurry.
Self-employed income, line by line
Sample: a graphic design sole proprietor in Church Hill
| Worksheet line | Amount |
|---|---|
| 2024 Schedule C net profit | $71,400 |
| Add depreciation (line 13) | +$6,850 |
| Add business use of home (line 30) | +$3,120 |
| Subtract non-deductible meals (line 24b) | -$1,480 |
| 2024 adjusted income | $79,890 |
| 2025 Schedule C net profit | $78,200 |
| Add depreciation and home office | +$9,640 |
| Subtract non-deductible meals | -$1,610 |
| 2025 adjusted income | $86,230 |
| 24-month average (income rose, so averaging applies) | $83,060 / year |
| Qualifying monthly income | $6,922 |
The tax return alone showed $78,200, or $6,517 a month. The add-backs are worth $405 a month of qualifying income, which at a 45% debt-to-income ratio supports roughly $182 more in housing payment. Sample figures.
Run your own worksheetGift funds, and the paper trail that clears
Five documents, in this order, or the file waits.
- 01Donor's bank statementShowing the funds in the donor's account before the transfer, and showing the withdrawal.
- 02Transfer evidenceA wire confirmation or a cancelled cheque. A screenshot of a banking app is usually rejected.
- 03Borrower's depositA statement or a deposit receipt showing the exact amount landing in your account, matching to the cent.
- 04No comminglingDeposit the gift alone. A gift mixed with a payroll deposit in one transaction takes days to unpick.
- 05Or a direct wire to settlementThe cleanest route. The donor wires the settlement agent directly and the funds never touch your account.
- Seasoned funds
- Money that has sat in your account for the full 60-day statement window is considered seasoned and does not need sourcing.
- Large deposit threshold
- Any single deposit above 50% of your total monthly qualifying income generally must be sourced and explained.
- Cash is not an asset
- Physical cash deposited into an account cannot be used, at any amount, on any agency programme. There is no workaround.
Checklist
Twelve questions to ask any lender, including me
Print it, screenshot it, read it down the phone. A lender who answers all twelve without hesitating is worth talking to. A lender who deflects on the third one is telling you something.
See how my process answers them
- Is this a lock or a quote?A quote is a hypothetical. A lock has a number, an expiry date and a desk behind it.
- What is the lock expiry date, in writing?Extensions cost roughly 0.03 points a day. Nobody volunteers that figure.
- Do you offer a float-down, and what triggers it?Usually one per loan, a 0.250% market improvement, about 0.125 points to exercise.
- What is your origination charge in section A?Section A of the loan estimate is the lender's own fee. Compare that, not the headline rate.
- Are you quoting me par, or a discount point buydown?A rate that beats everyone usually has points buried in section A.
- What is the mid FICO you priced this at?Pricing moves in score bands. A quote at 760 is worthless if your middle score is 738.
- Is the mortgage insurance monthly, single, split or lender-paid?Four structures, four very different five-year costs.
- Will you underwrite the file before issuing the pre-approval?A letter based on an unverified application is not worth showing a listing agent.
- Who actually underwrites this loan?With a broker it is the wholesale lender. You are entitled to know which one.
- What is the turn time on conditions this week?Not the marketing number. The number for this week, at this desk.
- Do you sell my loan, and to whom?Servicing transfers are normal. Being surprised by one is not.
- What is on the closing disclosure that is not on the loan estimate?The answer should be almost nothing, and any change has a tolerance rule behind it.
Bring me the loan estimate you already have
Send the PDF, not the rate. I will read section A and section E back to you and tell you honestly whether I can beat it.
No credit pull to read a competing loan estimate.
Clients
What people actually say afterwards
4.9
From 187 reviews Sample
Jordan sent three lender quotes side by side with the five-year cost worked out. Nobody else did that. We picked the second cheapest because it closed faster.
We thought assistance was free money. He showed us the rate premium over ten years and we still chose it, but at least we chose it knowing.
Two lenders told me my tax returns killed the deal. Jordan ran the add-backs, found $9,000 of depreciation and got me approved on full documentation.
The reserve requirement at our first bank was eighteen months. Jordan found a desk that wanted six. Same rate, completely different file.
He had the Tidewater response ready before the appraiser called. Three extra sales went over and the value came back at contract.
He talked me out of it the first time. Break-even was 41 months and we were moving in two years. Called me back in October when it actually made sense.
The builder incentive looked huge until we compared it properly. It was worth $2,400 and the rate cost us $5,900 over five years. We took the outside loan.
Closing took a week longer than planned because of a paint repair on the porch. Jordan warned us about it in week one, so at least it was not a surprise.
Written weekly
Rate notes
What pricing actually did, what changed in the guidelines, and the arithmetic behind both. No market predictions, because nobody has them.
Rate noteLocking into a falling market without losing the float-down
Three weeks of improving pricing produced more panic in my inbox than any selloff this year. Here is the arithmetic I gave everyone who called.
Read the note- The add-backs your accountant forgot to mentionYour tax return is designed to minimise income. Your mortgage application needs the opposite. Form 1084 is where those two goals meet.
- What actually happens when the appraisal comes in lowFour outcomes, one of which involves a written argument to the appraiser. Here is what each costs and which ones work.
- Gift funds: the paper trail that actually clears underwritingWho may give, how much, and the four documents that turn a generous parent into an approved source of funds.
- All rate notes
What it costs
Two ways I get paid, and you pick
Broker compensation is disclosed on every file by federal rule. It is easier to just tell you up front. All figures below are sample ranges for this demonstration site.
Most files
Lender-paid compensation
$0paid by you at closing
The wholesale lender pays my compensation out of the rate. You pay no origination charge in section A of the loan estimate. This is how roughly four out of five of my files are written.
- No origination fee on your loan estimate
- Compensation is a fixed percentage set in advance and disclosed on every file
- It cannot vary by loan programme, by borrower, or by how hard you negotiate
Sometimes cheaper
Borrower-paid compensation
1.00%of the loan amount, sample figure
You pay the origination charge directly and the lender's rate sheet is quoted without my compensation priced in. On larger loans and on short-horizon files this occasionally nets out lower.
- Appears in section A of the loan estimate, where you can see it
- Can be paid from a seller concession or a lender credit
- We model both structures before you choose, on the same day's pricing
Pass-through
Third-party costs
At costno mark-up, ever
Appraisal, credit report, title, recording and Virginia recordation tax are paid to the people who perform the work. I do not mark them up and I do not take a share.
- Appraisal $625 to $750 in the Richmond market (sample range)
- Credit report $65 to $95 per borrower (sample range)
- Title, settlement and recording quoted by your settlement agent
Four things I will put in writing
The loan estimate is the promise
If a fee I control rises between the loan estimate and the closing disclosure without a valid change of circumstance, I pay the difference. That is not generosity, it is the tolerance rule, and I will not argue about it.
A written comparison, every time
You see at least three wholesale quotes on the same day's pricing, with net cost over five years, before you choose. No file gets placed without it.
Tuesday and Friday updates
From application to closing you get a status note twice a week, whether or not anything has changed. Silence is the thing borrowers hate most.
One credit pull
One hard enquiry covers the whole panel. Multiple mortgage enquiries inside a 45-day window count as a single event for scoring purposes.
Compensation percentages are set in advance with each wholesale lender and reviewed quarterly. The figures on this page are samples and are not a quote.
Licensed, disclosed and checkable
4.9 average from 187 reviewsSample
- NMLS #XXXXXXXIndividual mortgage loan originator
- Virginia MLO licenceBureau of Financial Institutions
- Maryland and North CarolinaLicensed in three states
- Equal Housing OpportunityFair lending, every file
- 8 hours continuing educationCompleted annually, SAFE Act
- Independent brokerage31 wholesale lenders, no house product
The NMLS number shown as NMLS #XXXXXXX is a placeholder. The real number belongs to the licensed originator who takes this site over. See the licensing page.