Non-QM Underwriter

Non-QM Underwriter

Founded in 2000, Plaza Home Mortgage, Inc. is a privately owned, full-service national lender, offering Wholesale, Correspondent, Renovation and Reverse residential mortgages. Headquartered in San Diego, California, Plaza employs a network of sales associates to serve its clients nationwide. Plaza is dedicated to building quality, long-term relationships with its mortgage broker and correspondent clients by offering comprehensive programs and exceptional customer experience.

The Non-QM Underwriter is responsible for evaluating and decisioning mortgage applications that fall outside traditional agency guidelines, with a focus on DSCR, Bank Statement, Asset Depletion, and self-employed borrower programs. This role requires advanced analysis of borrower capacity, collateral, and creditworthiness through review of supporting documentation such as credit reports, income and asset verification, bank statements, tax returns, appraisals, and fraud prevention tools. The Non-QM Underwriter applies sound credit judgment while ensuring compliance with company policies, investor requirements, and regulatory standards. This position plays a critical role in balancing risk management with service excellence for both internal and external partners.

Responsibilities and Duties

• Ability to manually underwrite complex transactions to ensure the loan meets established underwriting guidelines.
• Compute income and debt ratio calculations following program guidelines and ability to repay requirements.
• Underwrite loan files in accordance with investor and company Non-QM guidelines, focusing on DSCR, Bank Statement, Asset Depletion, and other alternative documentation loan programs.
• Maintain current knowledge of Non-QM investor guidelines, overlays, and program updates.
• Perform mortgage credit analysis with or without the assistance of an automated underwriting system and ensure lending decisions follow company guidelines and policies.
• Perform detailed analysis and review of appraisal for one-to-four family residential properties to determine acceptability of security for loan programs offered by Plaza.
• Review loan documents for accuracy and consistency and address discrepancies as necessary.
• Issue loan decisions to our business partners in a clear and concise manner.
• Document decisions via loan origination platform and complete all final loan decision forms as required.
• Identify red flags, layered risk, or potential fraud indicators in loan documentation.
• Provide exceptional customer service to both our internal and external customers, including but not limited to answering loan specific questions on non-agency programs and reviewing program requirements within established SLAs.
• Maintain production goals & standards in accordance with established SLAs and production metrics.
• Other duties as assigned.

Qualifications

• Recent manual underwriting experience in the mortgage industry.
• Proficient with self employed income calculations and guidelines
• Non-agency underwriting experience preferred
• Strong attention to detail
• Excellent problem-solving skills
• Strong interpersonal and communication skills a must
• Ability to work in a fast-paced environment
• High School Diploma or GED equivalent
• Minimum 4 years residential underwriting experience
• Minimum 2 years Non-QM specific underwriting experience

Work Environment: This is a remote position.

Compensation and Benefits:

Estimated Rate of Pay:

$43.27 - $55.29 This position is full-time; non-exempt. The estimated range is the budgeted amount for this position. Final offers are based on various factors, including skill set, experience, location, qualifications and other job-related reasons.

In addition, Plaza offers a competitive benefits package; including medical/dental/vision, paid time off and holidays, 401(k), life and pet insurance. Plaza also offers additional benefits such as Accident, Hospital, and Critical Illness insurance, and Flexible spending accounts along with a variety of discounted services.

Plaza is an EEOC employer and follows all federal, state, and local laws relating to fair employment. Plaza Home Mortgage, Inc. is committed to preventing, stopping and remedying all forms of discrimination that occur in its workplace. Managers are accountable for keeping Plaza's workplace free from discrimination and ensuring that Plaza provides equal employment opportunity for all in the workforce and for those seeking to become members of Plaza's workforce. Plaza's employees are protected by laws designed to protect employees from discrimination on the bases of race, religion, color, sex, pregnancy, gender identity, sexual orientation, parental status, national origin, age, disability, family medical history or genetic information, political affiliation, military service, or any other non-merit based factor. These protections extend to all management practices and decisions, including recruitment and hiring practices, appraisal systems, promotions, and training and career development programs. Plaza's employees are also protected against retaliation if they engage in a protected activity, whistleblowing, or the exercise of any appeal or grievance right provided by law.