What's up with this... Commitment letter.....

We are looking at a house in levittown as I said before, engineer is there today, as we speak as a matter of fact.

When we made the initial offer the people accepted but said they wanted us to go to "THEIR GUY" to get pre-approbal... We ALREADY have it... seems Wrong to me, anyway... they said if we arn't going to go get another pre-approval from the person they use then they want a letter of commitment.. WHY... we arn't even in contract yet, and it's not necessary! RIGHT??? I don't understand. Any insight on this one? I've already held them off for 4 days, waiting at least till the engineer gives us the "thumbs up"!

Re: What's up with this... Commitment letter.....

That does seem odd.

DH and I did not get our committment letter till very close to the end. I think at that point the mortgage co had all the documents, including the bank inspection. IIRC, they would not give us the comm. letter till the bank inspection was done. So these people, I assume, would need all that pushed through. It seems curious to me.

Re: What's up with this... Commitment letter.....

when DH and I put in a bid on a townhouse and it was accepted (we backed out later on), he asked us to get pre-approved through his broker. I think b/c were going to put zero $ down though.

we're never doing that again.

Re: What's up with this... Commitment letter.....

Re: What's up with this... Commitment letter.....

Thanks. I though it seemed odd too! I'm going to look into it a bit!

Re: What's up with this... Commitment letter.....

The approval with their guy may just be a precaution. They may just want insurance that you're approval is valid (which I'm sure it is.) That doesn't necessarily mean you have to use their broker. If they've been burned in the past (this house or another property) perhaps that's why they are acting so cautious. We had a buyer for our last sale that had approval but financing fell through AFTER we closed. Before second closing we asked them to get approved through our lender to insure it was going to happen but they did not have to use our lender (and they didn't and ended up getting an outrageous ARM.) It may seem like they are out to get you but it might not be like that.

ETA:
Just to kinda address the ethical side. In our case they lender never gave specifics about their case, just a general yes or no to whether they could be approved for the amount required. They cannot divest financial or personal information. It also has a lot to do with how much you are putting down. If you are putting down 20% then I would it very odd they are asking this. If you are putting down less, then it makes more sense. The closer to zero the more precaution.

Message edited 7/13/2006 9:39:51 PM.

Re: What's up with this... Commitment letter.....

While we were looking, there was a seller that wanted this. It was disclosed on the flyer that they give you at an open house. I chose not to have anything to do with bidding on that house. My reasons were based on the controlling nature of it, and I really wasn't interested in giving a broker that I had not chosen personal information about me and my DH. I did not want to deal with this person trying to solicit my business.

DH and I found a house that we liked much better and the owner only required the letter we obtained. We also obtained our financing directly from the lender (TFCU).

Re: What's up with this... Commitment letter.....

sounds like their guy wants a to sell you a mortage and get more out of it....if they really need to verify records, they can contact the bank to verify the information (pre qual and amount) is correct.

Its more unethical that they are asking you to do this. If you prepared a solid offer with pre-qual, downpayment...you are a serious buyer.

they should know that and you should probally remind them of that...

that moves sounds really bad..i woudln't give them jack...

Re: What's up with this... Commitment letter.....

The real estate broker we bought our house from told us that the seller said the only way the deal would go through was if we used their in house mortgage guy to do our prequal which we already had, and to supply our mortgage....We yessssed them to death until it came time for the back to do the walk through to see the value of the house....You should of heard the realtor yelling at me on the phone when she found out that Danielle and I were using a different mortgage guy....She was freaking out.

Till this day I believe they get some sort of kickback from it - but they will never admit to it

Scott

Re: What's up with this... Commitment letter.....

So the engineer gives us 2 thumbs up and says the house is in "tip-top" shape... NOTHING but a small leak under the kitchen sink.. the house was immaculate.. So this make me a DH feel soooooo much better. I called up my friend (he's doing the mortgage for us, tell him all was good, He's calls up the realor and sets them all straight! AMEN!! Well he (nasty realtor guy) sends me an email. All seems good to go, your lawyer should receive the contract early next week! I guess he was set straight...

DH told him to kiss his *** too basically and when we have a contract they'll get a commitment! LLLLLOOOOOOSSSSEEERRRRRSSSSSS.. how shady can you be.