Answer: Not necessarily. Most of the time between your mortgage application and your loan funding and closing is spent on loan processing. If you provide all the documentation your loan officer requests in a timely manner, it’s possible for your jumbo loan to close in as little time as a conforming loan.

What can push back the closing time on a jumbo loan, however, is the amount of supporting documentation that may be required to approve a jumbo loan. Given that jumbo loans have larger loan limits which in turn, means greater risk for the lender, the qualifying standards for jumbo loans tend to be more rigorous when compared to conforming loans.

Jumbo loan borrowers are more likely to earn RSU income, or earn revenue from a business or investment property. This means they’ll need to provide more documentation to verify their income than a typical wage earner. To qualify for a jumbo loan, borrowers also need to demonstrate that they’ve got a greater amount of cash reserves than a conforming loan borrower, which again, has the potential to increase the amount of documents they’ll need to submit. In short, the more information that needs to be verified, the more time it could potentially take to process a jumbo loan.

Another additional requirement for jumbo loans which could delay closing is home appraisals—some jumbo loans require 2 appraisals. A jumbo loan for more than $2M automatically requires 2 home appraisals. Jumbo loans for more than $1.5M may also require 2 home appraisals. The home appraisal process usually takes around 2 weeks (depending on the state and county), so despite the borrower and the lender's best efforts, home appraisal delays could also impact the closing date.

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