Underwriting is the lender's review process that evaluates whether a loan application meets the program's risk criteria. The underwriter (or underwriting team) verifies borrower credit, liquidity, experience, entity vesting, property value (via appraisal), title status, insurance, and program-specific conditions.
Underwriting stages: Conditional Approval → conditions cleared → Final Approval → Clear to Close. Each stage adds confidence; CTC is the all-clear.
Loan officers structure the file so it underwrites cleanly. Borrowers don't deal with underwriters directly — the loan officer is the intermediary. ("Always blame the underwriter" is loan-officer shorthand for explaining why a condition surfaced late.)
See also: Loan Officer, Clear to Close.