When do mortgage lenders look at bank statements?

Lenders use a process called underwriting to verify your income. Insurers research and evaluate the level of risk you pose before a lender takes on your loan. Once your subscription is complete, your lender will tell you whether or not you qualify for a home loan. These are some warning signs that insurers look for when they review their bank statements during the loan approval process.

Your bank statements tell the lender a lot about you as a potential borrower. And, luckily or unfortunately, your bank statements can tell the mortgage lender whether or not your loan should be approved when you apply for a mortgage. A bank or mortgage company may also want to see evidence of how the funds were deposited in the borrower's bank account. The bank or lender may also request proof or an audit record of the origin of the borrower's deposit, especially if it was a gift.

Some financial institutions impose limits on the amount you can give to borrowers to help with the down payment. As a result, a bank can request a letter from the person who gave the money away. Each lender and investors who buy mortgages from them on the secondary market will have their own requirements for how many months of mortgage payments they expect borrowers to have saved (not including the amount they will spend on the down payment). Some lenders still work with physical paper documents, while others may allow you to manage them electronically.

This includes any savings account or regular cash flow to help cover your monthly mortgage payments.

Mortgage lenders

require that you provide them with recent statements for any account with readily available funds, such as a checking or savings account. It's also not uncommon for a lender to simply impose reserve requirements to filter out loans that they believe have a higher risk of future default. Finally, your lender uses your bank statements to see if you have enough money in your account to cover closing costs.

But what does your bank statement say to your mortgage lender, other than how much you spend per month? Read on to learn everything your lender can deduct from the numbers on your bank statement. One of the things a lender looks for before approving a loan is your general financial situation and reserves. Reserves can be complicated because they can vary a lot from one lending program to another, and they're also a common “overlap” that a lender adds to underwriting guidelines. The lender must verify that the funds required for the purchase of the home have accumulated in a bank account and that the lender can access them.

Some types of loans require a few months of leftover mortgage payments in the account for emergency cash reserves. Every lender has an individual standard for how much you should save, but most want to see at least a few months' worth of payments in their account. A deposit slip may require the borrower to provide the mortgage lender with at least two months of bank statements.