Documenting Your Assets - Verifying Your Down Payment

When buying a home, it is not enough to just "come up" with the money. With the exception of "no asset verification" loans, lenders want to verify where the money comes from. This is partially a quality control feature to protect against fraud, and partially an underwriting tool to determine your qualifications as a borrower. 

If you can document the funds come from your personal savings, the lender is more confident of your strength as a borrower.  A savings history indicates a level of stability.

In addition, if you can verify you have additional assets that are not needed for the down payment, it is important to document those, too. Additional assets are "reserves" you can draw upon during times of trouble, such as unemployment, medical emergencies, and similar occurrences. Additional assets can also help to document that you have a history of saving money, which makes you a more dependable borrower.

It is extremely important to completely document the paper trail of any funds you use for down payment and closing costs. The sections that follow offer guidance on both verifying assets and documenting them as a source of your down payment.

copyright 2006 by Terry Light and RealEstate ABC

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