Buying A Home
Dear Community,

Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.

If you have questions about this, please email help@theknot.com.

Thank you.

Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.

Bank Statements for Mortgage Pre-Approval

We will go for a pre-approval at the beginning of next year, closer to when we are ready to buy.  Typically, how many months of bank statements are requested?

Our current situation is that I have a checking (with direct deposit of my paycheck), DH has a checking (with direct deposit of his paycheck), we have one joint savings (including the source of our dp money), and I have another savings account (under my social security # for over 20 years) joint with my Dad (this money would not be used for a down payment).  In addition to this, we have individual 401-Ks and DH has individual IRAs.  Finally, I have a (very small) account bank account from when I was in grad school in NYC that is still open (has a balance of less than $400, but is free checking due to an arrangement with my school).

I assume that they are going to need to see all of this?  It is 9 different "bank statements". Right now, basically all the household bills (including the current mortgage for our current condo) is paid out of my checking.  DH's checking is ancillary expenses and fun money.  We make about the same income, each.

Should I try to merge/close some of these accounts now, or leave them as they are?  I know that it is a bit of a complicated set up, but it works for us.  Also, if we merge accounts we might have "large deposits" into one account, and it might create a headache documenting the paper trail.

What do you think?

Beautiful baby girl born at 34 weeks due to vasa previa.   Finally home after 15 day NICU stay!

Re: Bank Statements for Mortgage Pre-Approval

  • We started the process not too long ago and had to provide 2 months worth of bank statements. Our situation is not as complicated as yours so I don't know what the answer would be. But I think the reason the lenders want bank statements is to prove that you have the money to pay for the house (not just the down payment). We found a mortgage broker first and she told us everything we needed. If you have a real estate agent, they probably have a mortgage person they can recommend to you. Even if you decide not to go with them, they could likely advise on what to do with all of your accounts. 

    Good luck!  

  • they will want 2 months worth.  we also have a collection of accounts, but i was feeling lazy and didn't give them everything.  i just gave them enough to prove we had the down payment and a good size reserve. 
    image
    Have you seen my monkey?
  • I just had to give 3 months worth.
    image
  • Ours was 3 months.  Just so you know, they might not let you use your joint account with your dad as part of your "assets."  Sounds crazy I know, but we ran into that situation with my husband and an account he has with his dad's name on it.  We were fine without it (had plenty of savings for the 20% down payment, prepaids, closing and reserves), but had we needed to use it, we would have been out of luck since we refused to ask FIL to legally "gift" us the $ as the bank wanted because there would have been a tax penalty for him.
    Crafts for Lily
    My Valentine Bookends (2~13~13, 2~15~09)
    image
  • We are doing a USDA  loan and had to provide 2 months worth of statements. We also had to explain any deposits that were not direct deposits from jobs.
    Visit The Nest! Visit The Nest! Image and video hosting by TinyPic
  • That is interesting about the joint account with my Dad, Justin.  We don't really need it, but it is good to keep in mind.  Not sure how this would work with him "gifting" it to me and tax implications.  While both of our names are on the account, the money is under my SS number only and I've been paying taxes on it for many years (not my Dad).  It is a tricky situation. 
    Beautiful baby girl born at 34 weeks due to vasa previa.   Finally home after 15 day NICU stay!
  • imagechicagobride_07:
    That is interesting about the joint account with my Dad, Justin.  We don't really need it, but it is good to keep in mind.  Not sure how this would work with him "gifting" it to me and tax implications.  While both of our names are on the account, the money is under my SS number only and I've been paying taxes on it for many years (not my Dad).  It is a tricky situation. 

    That was our situation too.  It has to do with it being a "joint" account.  Stupid really.  Of course, it wasn't any more silly than DH and I both having to write letters allowing the money in our joint accounts to be used for the purchase of our home.  They just REALLY don't like money that has anyone else's name on it.  Glad to hear you can work around it :)  That's what we did and it all worked out in the end. 

    Crafts for Lily
    My Valentine Bookends (2~13~13, 2~15~09)
    image
  • imageJustinlove:
    Ours was 3 months.  Just so you know, they might not let you use your joint account with your dad as part of your "assets."  Sounds crazy I know, but we ran into that situation with my husband and an account he has with his dad's name on it.  We were fine without it (had plenty of savings for the 20% down payment, prepaids, closing and reserves), but had we needed to use it, we would have been out of luck since we refused to ask FIL to legally "gift" us the $ as the bank wanted because there would have been a tax penalty for him.

    weird, we didn't have that problem at all when we bought our first house.  the account we had our down payment in was a joint account between me and my mom. 

    image
    Have you seen my monkey?
  • It is weird, but then again, it really depends on what you have going on.  We did a conventional 20% down loan and we own more than one home so they really scrutinze your assets.  Since this was not our first home, we didn't qualify for any of the "first time homebuyer" perks.  In the end, it was not an issue because we had more than enough in our other accounts to cover all the necessary expenses and reserves.  I was talking to our friend who is a closing attorney and she said that it is a very common practice.

    Crafts for Lily
    My Valentine Bookends (2~13~13, 2~15~09)
    image
Sign In or Register to comment.
Choose Another Board
Search Boards