Before a lender reads your application, an underwriter reads your bank statements, and the first 10 minutes decide whether the rest of the file gets a fair read. Preparing for that read is the cheapest improvement available to any borrower.
Consistency and trend of gross deposits across 4 to 6 months. Lumpy is explainable; declining is a conversation; a single large transfer propping up a weak month is a flag underwriters are trained to catch.
Days below zero and returned items are read as a direct measure of cash discipline. Three or more negative days in a month prices the file down before anyone reads a word of the application.
Existing daily and weekly remittances are visible in the statements whether or not they appear on the application. An application that omits positions the statements reveal does not get a worse price. It gets declined, because the omission reads as character, not oversight.
Debt service coverage is the arithmetic of survival: cash available against payments owed, and 1.25 times coverage is the working floor for most monthly paper. Owner add backs are credible when documented and fatal when improvised. Receivable aging and customer concentration decide factoring and line pricing before any negotiation starts.
Statements, financials, position schedule, debt schedule, and aging, assembled in that order with the questions answered before they are asked. A complete file gets competing offers. An incomplete one gets a single quote priced for the lender's uncertainty.
Citadel Ridge reads files for a living. Send yours.