First Stop 4 Home Loans

Lucky you!  There are many buyers these days getting financial  help from family.  I want to give you a few tips on getting gifts for your home buying process.  Not all programs allow gifts or have the same “rules” on the process.  In this tips & tidbits, I will address gifts for FHA loan types since these make up over 75% of my current business.

• gifts can only come from family members
• gifts CAN cover all of your down payment and closing costs, unless the program requires a minimum investment, like the Dakota County Bond Program
• don’t deposit gift money into your accounts until you’ve discussed this with your loan officer
• the funds for the gifts WILL be tracked — not only into your account, but proof will be requested from your family to prove they had the money to give you (there are specific guidelines to follow)
• cash is not an acceptable gift
• if demonstrated, gifts could come from a non-family member, i.e. fiance or partner (certain documentation will be required)
• unsecured, borrowed funds are not acceptable sources of gifts

These are a few things that come to mind when advising on gifts.  Maybe you’re asking why even address this?  Here’s the thing, in the 16 years I’ve done this, I’ve seen way too many times when a loan file gets hampered by doing the wrong thing with gift money.  It’s my goal to give you the best advice possible so this doesn’t happen to you.  It’s already a stressful situation buying your first home, it certainly doesn’t need to be worsened by having to create a paper-trail for something that already happened.  Better to know what is expected of you on the FRONT end of your home-buying process then coming to you and your family at the end asking for more paperwork.  Oh how fun!

Moral of this tip — please be upfront with your intentions to get a gift and hopefully you will be given the right advice the first time!

Tags: closing costs, earnest money, gift

This entry was posted on Saturday, February 6th, 2010 at 10:45 pm by Darcy and is filed under Assistance for Down Payment, First Time Buyers, Tips & Tidbits. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.