Cash reserve requirement when buying a 2nd home + Gift money questions

They guy at QM told you two month's seasoning because once it is seasoned, it is no longer treated like a gift. Gift funds from overseas, regardless of the country, has become harder to document because many times the documentation is not in English. Even if the documentation is translated into English, most underwriters still don't want to deal with it. Regarding the reserves, if you are upside down in the home you are vacating virtually all lenders have overlays that will required 6 months of reserves for both payments, regardless of the down on the new property. In order to be gifted, the funds must be readily available and not from borrowed funds. If your gift giver is waiting for paydays to provide the gift, that is just going to compound the documentation problem. My biggest concern for what you are trying to do is that you apparently have limited reserves to fall back on if something hic-ups. You are becoming a new landlord and until you find a tenant, will be carrying the full load of all of the payments. That is a lot. In fact for many, it is a recipe for disaster. This is why lenders want the reserves. Most lenders will require the gift to have been made before the transaction is sent to underwriting because the underwriter wants to see bank records proving the gift and that takes time to get from the banks. ~ Bert Carpenter, The LoansA2z team of NOVA Home Loans ~ NMLS 40586 ~ www.LoansA2z.com 888-889-9950