Mortgage guideline search that knows the loan: a cited answer in seconds, and the stricter overlay shown beside the agency rule
A cited guideline answer in seconds, plus weekly change notes.
See one case, screen by screen ↓A way for underwriters, processors and loan officers to ask a guideline question in plain words and get the answer with the guide section it comes from. Mortgage Guideline Search reads the Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, FHA and VA guides, your investors’ overlays and your own credit overlays, in the version in force, and cites every sentence.
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An underwriter knows the Selling Guide. What she does not know is whether the rule changed last week for the investor this loan is locked with. The answer sits across the Fannie Mae Selling Guide, the Freddie Mac Seller/Servicer Guide, HUD Handbook 4000.1, the VA Lenders Handbook, each correspondent investor’s seller guide and bulletins, and the lender’s own credit overlays — and the guides move about once a month.
So staff answer from memory or from a checklist written before the last bulletin. A loan officer waits on the underwriting desk; the policy lead sends a weekly update without knowing which files it hits; training notes keep circulating after the rule behind them has changed. When the stricter overlay is missed, it surfaces later as a suspense condition, a QC finding or a loan the investor will not buy.
Our estimate, not a measurement: one investor overlay bulletin, from arrival to every touched file and saved answer handled — by hand and with the solution, including the people’s own review.
Six specialist agents search the agency guides and overlays and apply them to the loan; the underwriter decides.
Monday 12 October 2026 at Halsted Ridge Mortgage. Renée Okafor, a senior underwriter, has three files waiting on a rule. Here is her morning, screen by screen, in the working solution.
Renée asks Ironwood’s minimum credit score for a manufactured home. The answer comes back in 6 seconds: 660 for loans locked with Ironwood on or after 19 October, 620 until then — stricter than Fannie’s own 620. The agency chip and the overlay chip sit side by side, and the overlay is marked as the one that governs.
“Both rules apply to this question. The stricter one governs.”
Loan 2610-4471: Priya Calder’s $68,400 of student loans show $0 on the credit report because they are in forbearance. The Selling Guide allows 1% of the balance or a fully amortizing payment — $486 from her servicer letter. But Northcastle’s bulletin NC-26-19 accepts 1% only for loans it buys from 2 November, and this loan is expected to be bought the week of 9 November.
“While the loan is with Northcastle, qualify at $684 — 1% of the $68,400 balance. That puts the DTI at 46.4%, over Northcastle’s 45% cap.”
The question reader read the loan: conventional, locked with Northcastle, purchase expected the week of 9 November. The guide searcher found seven passages across B3-6-05, 5401.2, 4000.1 II.A.4.b and VA chapter 4. The overlay checker applied NC-26-19, the impact calculator recomputed the DTI, and the answer writer cited all seven sentences.
“The agents never change a loan file, a lock or a DU submission.”
Renée clicks the Selling Guide chip. B3-6-05 opens beside the answer, edition in force today, with the governing sentence highlighted: for loans in forbearance the lender may use 1% of the outstanding balance or a fully amortizing payment from the documented repayment terms. Nine numbered tabs hold every source the answer stands on.
Under the answer, the DTI meter shows 44.4% at $486 and 46.4% at $684 against the 45% cap. Three options follow, each with its DTI: re-lock with Bayline Mortgage Investors, which follows the Selling Guide here (44.4%); stay with Northcastle and pay off the $14,900 auto loan at closing (41.6%); or move to FHA at 0.5% of the balance, $342 (42.9%). Renée chooses Bayline.
Elsewhere: Freddie 0.5%, $342 · FHA 0.5%, $342 · VA 5% ÷ 12, $285 · Halsted Ridge: no overlay.
The note is drafted from the answer she just read: the balance, the servicer letter of 28 September, B3-6-05, NC-26-19, the 45% maximum in Northcastle’s matrix 4.02 and the decision to re-lock with Bayline. It carries five citations. Renée can edit it; it goes on the file under her name.
Lydia Park re-locks the loan with Bayline at 6.375%, expiring Fri 6 November. The file now qualifies at the fully amortizing $486 with a DTI of 44.4%, against Bayline’s 50% maximum (seller guide 3.7). Renée’s note sits under underwriter notes, with a condition to resubmit DU at the new payment.
Next file: Mark Ostrander has been self-employed for 14 months. Fannie’s B3-3.2-01 accepts 12 months with two prior years in the same line of work, and he was a finish foreman for seven years. Halsted Ridge’s own overlay 3.2 asks for 24, but lets the credit committee approve 12 to 23 months with six months’ reserves and a 680 score. The Ostranders have nine months’ reserves and a 742 score, so Renée requests the exception and Doug Feldman approves it.
Condition on the approval: reserves verified at closing.
The change digest for the week of 5 October lists five changes — three investor bulletins and two of Halsted Ridge’s own overlays — with the date each applies from. Together they touch 23 files; 6 are now over a cap, and 5 saved answers need updating. Fannie’s SEL-2026-09 is still open from earlier: 6 of 9 files re-checked.
The bulletin shows the old text struck through and the new text highlighted: 1% of the outstanding balance only, and income-driven $0 payments documented within 30 days of the note. It touches 14 files: 3 are now over Northcastle’s 45%, 11 still fit. Calder already shows “Re-locked with Bayline”. Two saved answers and one checklist line are drafted for Hannah Lindqvist.
Files are matched by program, investor, purchase date and the facts the rule touches.
The same Monday, seen by the people on the desk — what their week looked like, and what it looks like now.
Six specialist agents search the agency guides and overlays and apply them to the loan; the underwriter decides.
Reads the question and the loan it is about: program, occupancy, investor lock, expected purchase date, income and debts — and restates it as a topic plus the facts that decide it.
Searches the Selling Guide, the Seller/Servicer Guide, HUD Handbook 4000.1 with mortgagee letters, the VA Lenders Handbook with circulars and the USDA handbook, in the version in force on the date that decides the loan.
Finds every overlay on the topic in the investor’s seller guide, matrix and bulletins and in the lender’s own credit overlays, and decides which applies from its basis — lock, registration, application or purchase date.
For each rule that applies, recomputes the qualifying payment and the DTI, LTV or score test on the file and compares it with the investor’s caps, showing the working.
Writes the short answer first, then the reasoning, every sentence cited with its in-force date, and the options for the file; drafts the underwriter note on request.
Reads every announcement, bulletin, mortgagee letter, circular and overlay as it arrives, compares it with the version before, and maps each change to the files in the pipeline and the saved answers that cite the old text.
Decides; the policy lead approves saved answers. The agents propose; a named person decides.
Anyone on the desk can ask in plain words — or tell it what to note or send. Every answer cites the passage it stands on.
Which payment do we use for Priya Calder’s student loans?
While the loan is with Northcastle, $684 — 1% of the $68,400 balance. The Selling Guide also allows the fully amortizing $486, but Northcastle’s NC-26-19 accepts only 1% for loans it buys from 2 November. At $684 the DTI is 46.4%, over Northcastle’s 45%. Re-locking with Bayline keeps $486 and 44.4%.
Which of my files does Northcastle’s NC-26-19 touch?
Four of your files: Calder 44.4% → 46.4%, over; Mbeki 43.2% → 45.6%, over; Delacroix 41.0% → 43.9%; Huang 38.1% → 39.5%. Across the pipeline it touches 14 files; 3 are now over the 45% cap.
Compare the agencies on student loans in forbearance
For a student loan in forbearance showing $0: Selling Guide, 1% or fully amortizing; Seller/Servicer Guide, 0.5%; FHA 4000.1, 0.5%; VA, 5% ÷ 12; Northcastle from 2 November, 1% only. On the Calder balance that is $684 or $486, $342, $342, $285 and $684.
Add a cited note to the Calder file and ask Lydia to re-lock with Bayline
Done. The note is on loan 2610-4471 with five citations — Selling Guide B3-6-05, the servicer letter, NC-26-19, Northcastle matrix 4.02 and Bayline 3.7 — and Lydia Park is asked to re-lock with Bayline at the same rate. The file qualifies at $486, DTI 44.4%. A condition to resubmit DU is on the file.
13 screens from the working solution, on its sample data. Pick one to see it large.
How answers are written, what they may stand on, and who hears about changes. Every change is versioned and on the audit trail.
| Setting | Default | Choose from |
|---|---|---|
| Cite every sentence | Always on | Cannot be turned off |
| Say “not found” when no guide or overlay covers it | Always on | Cannot be turned off |
| Stricter overlay wins | On | On · Off |
| Show both rules | On | On · Off |
| Date that decides the version | Investor purchase date, then application date | Investor purchase date, then application date · Application date · Lock date |
| Agency guides and announcements | Daily at 06:00 | Daily at 06:00 · Twice a day · Hourly |
| Change digest | Mondays at 07:00 | Mondays at 07:00 · Fridays at 16:00 · Daily at 07:00 |
| Saved-answer approver | Hannah Lindqvist | Hannah Lindqvist · Doug Feldman |
Every figure is labelled: a target the solution is built to, an estimate, a typical published result, or a proven one.
“demo” = seen in the working solution, on its sample pipeline · “target” = the design goal, measured in the live solution · “estimated” = our estimate · “typical” = published figures: ACES Q4 & CY 2025 Mortgage QC Industry Trends (borrower and mortgage eligibility 2.97% → 11.63% of critical defects), ABT (20-minute manual lookup example), Fannie Mae SEL-2026-09. People, lenders, investors and borrowers named on this page are fictional — characters and sample data in the working solution.
A way for underwriters, processors and loan officers to ask a guideline question in plain words and get the answer with the guide section it comes from. Mortgage Guideline Search reads the Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, FHA and VA guides, your investors’ overlays and your own credit overlays, in the version in force, and cites every sentence.
It applies the overlay of the investor the loan is locked with, using the date that decides it — lock, registration, application or purchase. When the overlay is stricter, the answer shows the agency rule and the overlay side by side and marks the one that governs, as with Northcastle’s “1% only” against the Selling Guide’s 1% or fully amortizing payment.
Yes, when the question comes from a file. It reads the program, lock and numbers, recomputes the qualifying payment and DTI under each rule against the investor’s cap, and lays out the options. It never changes the loan file, the lock or the DU submission; the underwriter decides.
Agency guides are read every morning at 06:00 and investor bulletins as they arrive. Each change is compared with the version before and mapped to the files in the pipeline it touches and the saved answers it makes out of date, in a Monday digest — with a same-day alert when a change puts a file over an investor’s cap.
It says “not found” rather than guess. For 1099 income paid through a delivery app, Northcastle’s seller guide, matrix and 41 bulletins had no passage, so the answer gave the nearest section and drafted the question to Northcastle’s scenario desk.
In the working solution the Calder student-loan answer took 9 seconds with five agents and nine sources, and the Ironwood manufactured-home answer 6 seconds. The design goal is a 9-second median from question to cited answer, measured in the live solution.
Yes. The underwriter decides on the file and signs the note; exceptions go to the credit committee; the policy and training lead approves every saved answer and every edit to one. Every question, answer, note and approval is on the audit trail.
The Agentic Solution Engine builds and deploys it from your requirements and documents — the investors you deliver to, your credit overlays, your digest readers and approvers. It goes live once every quality gate has passed.
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