No, the mortgage broker did a google search on me, my wife, and my corporation. They found NotifyWire.com where I released the details of the Cease and Desist letter sent by Craigslist.
Since my income comes from my company (though mostly from consulting activities) the broker thought the underwriters might think my income future was in jeopardy.
He told me mortgage underwriters are doing web searches on applicants, which is the scary part.
Because they have no need to declare everything they base a decision on, and the decisions they make will often be made at face-value without consideration of any other information that might offer a more rounded view.
That sounds great. Would you want someone putting restrictions on what factors you're allowed to consider when you're deciding whether to lend someone an enormous sum of money?
As someone related to a mortgage underwriter I can tell you that they aren't doing Google searches on you[1]. They have all the documents they need to make a judgement call, if they don't they'll kick it back to you with a list of clarifications.
[1] This rule only applies to Fannie Freddie and the SBA which do the majority of mortgages. If you go through a private bank the rules are off.
Wouldn't it have been possible to just get Craigslist to submit some sort of documentation saying that they wouldn't sue you so long as the site remained offline?
Since my income comes from my company (though mostly from consulting activities) the broker thought the underwriters might think my income future was in jeopardy.
He told me mortgage underwriters are doing web searches on applicants, which is the scary part.