Checks and findings
Every published limit checked before the AUS runs, and what the DU or LP findings add when they come back.
Updated 2026-09-26
Checks and findings
Two things stand between a loan and approval: the published limits, checked before anything is submitted, and what the AUS says when it runs. The Checks step holds both.
Before the AUS runs
The loan's terms are worked out by code from the loan file and the documented income: the payment, the other debts, DTI, LTV and CLTV, the cash to close and what is left after it. Each is then held against its published limit.
| Checked | Against |
|---|---|
| Debt-to-income | DU's published maximum. LP and FHA publish none, so the ratio is shown and the AUS judges it. |
| Income on the application | The income the documents support. DU and LP use the application's figure, so a difference is corrected in EASE before the run. |
| Loan-to-value | The eligibility matrix for the product, occupancy, purpose and units, with every other lien and the full limit of any home equity line counted, so one check covers LTV, CLTV and HCLTV. |
| Loan amount within the county limit | The county's published limit for its number of units, in the year the loan closes. |
| Funds to close | The accounts against the cash to close, payoffs included. |
| Reserves | What is left after closing against DU's published floor. LP states the reserves it requires, so what is left is shown. |
| Second home, subject rent, term | DU's rules for a second home's units, for rent from the property itself, and for the term. |
Each row shows this loan's figure, the limit and a mark: within, over, judged by the AUS, or not checked yet because the file does not say enough. A row opens its arithmetic and its rule, quoted.
The headline names what fails and by how much. When several limits fail, it counts them, and one change clears them all. A limit no change to the structure can clear, such as a second home with two units, fails for every option, so none is offered for it.
Reading the findings
Drop the DU findings or the LPA feedback certificate on the page. In their published layouts, code reads them in a fraction of a second: the recommendation, the ratios, the loan amount, LTV and CLTV, reserves, product and term as the AUS states them, and every message with its identifier and its page. A scan or another layout goes to the reader. Each message is mapped to one issue type.
| Issue type | What it is |
|---|---|
| Eligibility failure | A ratio, an amount or an LTV over a published limit, or reserves under one. The threshold is stated. |
| Risk factor | A message the AUS gives as a reason for its risk class. No published threshold. |
| Documentation requirement | Something the AUS wants verified before it will finish. |
| Informational | A message that changes nothing. |
The Checks step then carries the AUS's name and its answer, "DU says Approve/Ineligible.", with what stops the loan against its limit, the findings page that says so, and the checks from the loan file beneath.
Eligibility and risk
An eligibility failure has a threshold the guides publish, so the exact change that clears it can be computed: the loan amount that lands the LTV on the cap, the paydown that clears the ratio. A risk result has no published threshold, so the options move the figure the AUS named, and each says so: "LP decides if it passes." The real AUS answers.
