Most mortgage files don’t slow down at underwriting. They slow down waiting for a document the client didn’t know they needed.
Below is what lenders commonly ask for on a residential purchase or refinance. Every lender and product is different, so confirm against the lender’s own conditions.
Identity
- Government photo ID for every borrower
- A second piece of ID, where the lender asks
- Contact details and current address history
Income: salaried borrowers
- Recent pay stubs
- A letter of employment: position, start date, salary or hourly rate, guaranteed hours
- Tax slips (T4s in Canada, W-2s in the US) for the last two years
- Notices of assessment, where the lender asks
Income: self-employed borrowers
- Two years of personal tax returns
- Two years of notices of assessment, showing no taxes owing
- Business financial statements
- Proof the business is active: articles, a business licence or a registration
Down payment and closing costs
- Bank or investment statements showing the funds, usually covering the last 90 days
- An explanation for any large deposit in that period
- A signed gift letter, if family is helping, plus proof the money has moved
- Proof of sale of a current home, if those funds are part of the down payment
The property
- The signed agreement of purchase and sale, with every amendment and waiver
- The listing sheet
- Condo documents (status certificate in Ontario) for a condo
- For a refinance: the current mortgage statement and property tax bill
- An appraisal, ordered through the lender when it asks for one
Most commonly missed
- Amendments to the agreement. The original is sent; the price change or the waiver isn't. Lenders need the full set.
- The 90-day history. A single balance screenshot isn't enough. Lenders want to see where the money came from.
- Large deposits. Any unusual deposit needs a short explanation and a paper trail.
- Taxes owing. For self-employed borrowers, a notice of assessment showing a balance owing often has to be cleared first.
- Expired documents. Pay stubs and statements go stale. A file that sits for weeks may need fresh copies.
Collecting it without the chase
Send each client one secure link to upload to, with the list above as the checklist. You see what has arrived and what’s still missing in one place, and you send the lender one clean, current package instead of a dozen forwarded emails.
Shrubs gives every client their own Shrub for exactly this, with uploads from a phone, signatures built in and a record of who opened what. The Free plan includes 2 GB of storage.