Mortgage Broker study plan

Build a one-page timeline that places each federal disclosure (Loan Estimate, Closing Disclosure, adverse action notice, servicing transfer notice) at its required trigger point and deadline.

Write out from memory the core triggers, coverage tests, and exemptions for TILA/Reg Z, RESPA/Reg X, ECOA/Reg B, HMDA/Reg C, and the SAFE Act, then check and correct each entry.

Calculate three worked examples of Reg Z finance charge and APR tolerance outcomes (zero, 1/8, and 1/4 percent) and state which cure applies to each.

Complete 40 practice items on federal lending statutes and record the reason each missed item was wrong in an error log.

Rank the six pieces of the loan application package in the order a processor must verify them, and justify each rank with the regulation or investor rule that drives it.

Draft the exact content of the four required borrower communications at intake: application receipt, intent to proceed, adverse action, and changed-circumstance re-disclosure.

Trace a sample file from first contact to rate lock and flag every point where a federal disclosure deadline is triggered.

Explain the ability-to-repay and qualified mortgage tests in your own words, including the general QM price-based threshold and the rebuttable presumption standard.

Compute front-end, back-end, and total debt-to-income ratios for five borrower scenarios that include self-employment, rental, and non-taxable income, showing each income adjustment you made.

Recalculate qualifying income for three self-employed borrowers using a two-year average, an add-back for depreciation, and a declining-income test.

Assemble a complete documentation checklist for a purchase file, a refinance file, and a cash-out file, marking which items are agency-required versus investor overlay.

Sequence a closing timeline backward from the consummation date and place the appraisal, title, verification, and disclosure steps on it.

Simulate a closing disclosure comparison and identify the tolerance categories for each changed fee.

Match each major loan program (conventional conforming, FHA, VA, USDA, jumbo) to its down payment, mortgage insurance, occupancy, and property-condition rules in a comparison grid.

Calculate monthly payment, escrow, and cash-to-close for the same borrower under three different programs and explain which program is cheapest over five years.

Distinguish the roles and liability of the originator, processor, underwriter, appraiser, title agent, and closing agent in a written chain-of-responsibility summary.

Solve ten pricing problems converting note rate into APR, and identify the compensation and fee triggers that affect each.

Explain how secondary-market pricing, servicing release premiums, and loan-level price adjustments combine into a rate sheet, then reproduce a rate sheet from base price and adjustments.

Compare fixed-rate, adjustable-rate, interest-only, and balloon structures by payment behavior, rate caps, and consumer risk.

Describe the appraisal and title insurance processes step by step, including what an underwriter does when value or title comes back short.

Solve eight rate-lock and extension scenarios, stating who bears the cost of each extension under a stated policy.

Classify 20 conduct scenarios as fraud, misrepresentation, steering, redlining, or permissible practice, and justify each classification with the governing fair-lending or anti-fraud principle.

Identify the red flags of occupancy, income, appraisal, and identity fraud in a written file-review checklist of at least 15 items.

Explain disparate impact and disparate treatment, and describe how a lender's pricing or marketing practice could create each.

Outline the fiduciary and disclosure duties an originator owes a borrower when recommending a product, and separate them from duties owed to the lender.

Summarize the licensing, sponsorship, and renewal duties a state regulator imposes on an originator, and note where states diverge from the common baseline.

Describe the examination and supervision process, including what records a regulator may request and how a deficiency is resolved.

Draft a complaint-and-escalation procedure an originator would follow when a borrower alleges discrimination or a disclosure error.

Apply the prohibited-practice rules to five advertisement and solicitation examples and rewrite each noncompliant example.

Retake a 100-item mixed mock exam under timed conditions and record the domain-by-domain score.

Re-study only the two lowest-scoring domains, rewriting each missed concept as a corrected rule statement.

Recite from memory the federal disclosure deadlines, DTI and ATR standards, and fair-lending prohibitions without notes.

Build a one-page final review sheet of numbers, dates, and thresholds you repeatedly missed.