Every once in a while, a borrower laughs and says, "Is there anything else you need? My blood type?"

I get it. When you're trying to close a deal, every additional document feels like another delay.

But I remember one file where a simple question changed everything. We asked for one more document that didn't seem important. The borrower couldn't understand why we needed it. Neither could I, at first.

But... When it finally came in, it answered another question nobody had thought to ask.

It didn't kill the deal. It actually kept the deal alive.

That experience changed the way I look at underwriting. Most questions aren't there because someone enjoys creating paperwork. They're there because every deal tells a story, and sometimes one missing page changes the ending.

Experienced investors rarely get frustrated when more questions come up. Instead, they assume there's probably a reason someone is asking. More often than not, there is.

(Has a question that seemed unnecessary at the time ever ended up saving one of your deals?)