I hope that never happens to anybody. It boils down to communication. In my example the partner fell in love with the property, and saw themself in the home.
Some time ago, a deal that appeared like any other in that it came across my desk as a referral from one of the great Realtors in Calgary. I have a couple that I work with that will impress you for sure, however, that is another post unto itself. Back to the story! We went through the normal process of getting the pre-approval done so shopping could begin. I always preach fall in love with the payment, before you fall in love with the property. I had all the documents with one exception which the client insisted was not a problem, he just could not print the proof as it was in an investment. Normally I have a look at the 90 days to make sure everything passes the sniff test and does not look like a problem. It was asked to produce one without this history. To which my reply was. “That is not how I do things as I don’t want to waste a Realtor’s time, your time or mine for that fact.” Not accepting this answer the pressure increased, so I finally bent and conditioned the pre-approval to further verification of this “guaranteed” down payment. With his upper limit in hand, the shopping began. Months later a place was found that matched his approval.
Let me fast-track this a couple of months to when the property was found, the offer made, and the deal was approved with the standard conditions. When the conditions were discussed with the client the story began to change and change again. This story went from personal savings to gifts, to gifts from out-of-country, then gifted by brothers, sisters, cousins, and parents with over 10 different transactions all starting after the pre-approval was dated. When the documents came in most of it was just gifted in the last 30 days and moved around so much that it needed some forensic auditing to follow.
Needless to say, since the money had not been in the country long enough, and was not from an immediate family member the underwriter was not happy. The deal started to fall apart. The spouse was not happy either, as they thought it was all but done. The frustration between them both at that point was raised to a yelling scenario in my office when we sat down to try to find a solution. I did find a solution, but along the road to get there emotions ran hot.
Tip of Wisdom #1
Get a pre-approval that is fully reviewed, and if needed underwritten. You don’t want to run into an issue after you have an accepted offer after you have conditional approval, after you fell in love and you have to say goodbye.
Tip of Wisdom #2
You might want to ensure you have realistic expectations of your budget, home price and the market in general before you begin. For this process to go smooth you don’t want a range of 200k-1.4 million and all over the city and surrounding areas. Buckle that down a tad. Don’t go looking at perfect million-dollar properties with a half-million-dollar budget.
Tip of Wisdom #3
When the day comes to waive the condition of financing, get something in writing from your mortgage specialist. Get a broker complete and or a written thumbs up from your Mortgage Advisor saying all the conditions have been met.
Tip of Wisdom #4
If your mortgage specialist has little experience and had not seen hundreds of deals, and has been in the business for 25 years make sure they have access to that type of knowledge and understanding. Most brokers would have had this deal die on the operating table. I was able to save it, and today it lives a happy healthy lifestyle. 🙂
Hope this helps. The checks and balances are there for a reason, as we want it to be smooth for you. Let us help!
Richmond Mortgage Team 