Buyers: Be Prepared to Show All Your Financial Details

• August 3rd 2009

by Mark Wellborn

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Prospective home buyers in the DC area should expect to be very open about their financial situation. The Washington Post had a piece this weekend indicating that buyers in this market are being required to reveal salary information and other personal assets before their offer is even considered.

A financial sheet is not required with most offers in the area; a lender’s pre-approval letter is usually all that a buyer must submit. However, the article intimates that most listing agents will not take an offer seriously if a financial statement is not submitted as well. And that is not sitting well with some buyers:

Fiona Renalds, a program manager for a military cancer institute, is giving up her Arlington rental for a house she and her husband, Michael, are buying in Kensington. The seller’s agent let them know that to make their offer strong, they should include a financial statement, in addition to their lender’s preapproval letter. But she had qualms about privacy and security.

“My first reaction was ‘I’m not doing that,’ “ Renalds said. “I don’t want to give all my financial information on a piece of paper. It could be faxed around. It took me at least two months to get a preapproval letter from my lender. They should trust that assurance,” she said.

The article gets a variety of perspectives from industry professionals, and is a good read for anyone that is in the market.

This article originally published at https://dc.urbanturf.com/articles/blog/buyers_be_prepared_to_show_all_your_financial_details/1197.