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"Motivation Letter" for Lender....Have You Heard Of This?

By Carol Zingone

Real Estate Agent with Berkshire Hathaway Home Services Florida Network Realty BK 3030920

September 01, 2010 01:27 AM

Great news! I had a closing that actually closed yesterday! We were scheduled for 4pm 8/31/10..

At 10:30am, my most awesome in-house lender called me with a request; what follows is a rough transcript:

Travis: The lender needs a motivation lender for your buyer, can you get her to write one?

Carol: Sure, but can you tell me first what this is, and why NOW?

Travis: They need a letter outlining why she wants to buy the house that you have a contract on, and the letter also needs to address what they intend to do with their current property.

Carol: Ok, let me see what we can do, she works odd hours, and is virtually impossible to get at the office.

I leave her a voice mail and call her husband as well to leave him a message. I'm now in the office ready to draft some ideas of what will suffice for a motivation letter so I can send it to her and make it easier on her to write one and get it back to us ASAP.

We got it done, they got a FANTASTIC deal on a house in Neptune Beach, FL with a large lot and a detached shop/garage for $177,000 -

My question is: has anyone else come across this "Motivation Letter"?????????

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Adam R. Cohn

STANDARD MORTGAGE CO. - Delray Beach, FL

We actually get mortgages closed FAST!

I have, its becoming more and more common for underwriters to ask for one. For example I had a client that wanted to buy a home, but already owned a condo close by and was applying for an FHA loan, so to make the underwriter comfortable that this new purchase was not going to be an investment and a new primary home the underwriter asked for a motivation letter. In this case the women was getting older and couldn't walk up the stair anymore to her condo, so she wanted a 1 story home to make it easier for herself to get into the home after the underwriter read and felt that was a reasonable reason for another purchase they closed the loan.

Sep 01, 2010 01:36 AM

Georgie Hunter R(S) 58089

Hawai'i Life Real Estate Brokers - Haiku, HI

Maui Real Estate sales and lifestyle info

That's a new one on me too, but now I am prepared for it when it happens.

Sep 02, 2010 02:48 PM

Jark Krysinski *PREC (Personal Real Estate Corporation)

REMAX CREST REALTY WESTSIDE - Vancouver, BC

TeamYVR Team Leader, BA,ABR,IRES,IMSD,LLB

Carol, thanks for the story. I too have never heart of a motivation letter but it sounds very much like a "Letter of Intent" to me. Cheers.

Sep 13, 2010 11:37 PM

Carol Zingone

Berkshire Hathaway Home Services Florida Network Realty - Jacksonville Beach, FL

Global Realtor in Jax Beach, FL - ABR, CRS, CIPS

Amy,

I would think your lender is asking for one because you have a similar situation to what I outlined, where you already own a property and are now purchasing another one with an FHA loan. I would focus on why you want to purchase the new property (proximity to the beach, to work) and what you plan to do with the current property. My buyer's letter literally was about 2-3 lines and that was it - hope this helps!

Sep 23, 2010 06:00 AM

"Motivation Letter" for Lender....Have You Heard Of This?

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Carol Zingone

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