Before Purchasing a Home in Chicago

Make No Major Purchase of Any Kind before buying a home in Chicago

This includes furniture, appliances, electronic equipment, jewelry, vacations, an expensive wedding, or automobiles, of course. When a real estate mortgage lender in Chicago reviews your loan package when applying for a loan, one of the things they are concerned about is the source of funds for your down payment and closing costs on that condo. You will be asked to provide statements for the last two or three months on any of your liquid assets. This includes checking accounts, saving accounts, money market funds, certificates of deposit, stock statements, mutual funds, and even your company 401K and retirement accounts.

If you have been moving money between accounts during that time, there may be large deposits and withdrawals in some of them.

The underwriter for your real estate mortgage loan will probably require a complete paper trail of all the withdrawals and deposits. You may be required to produce canceled checks, deposit receipts, and other seemingly inconsequential data, which could get quite tedious.

To ensure quality control and eliminate potential fraud, it is a requirement on most real estate mortgage loans in Chicago to completely document the source of all funds. Moving your money around, even if you are consolidating your funds to make it "easier," could make it more difficult for the lender to properly document.
So leave your money where it is until you talk to a loan officer.