How much of the downpayment can be gifts? (loan officer, 401k, California)

[solanoMan]

Hello all. How much of the downpayment can be gifts for a conventional loan? We live in California. We are putting 96kish for downpayment and 80 k of that is our own money and the rest will be given to us by our parents as a gift. Are there any issues with this?

Does our bank statement have to show that we have enough money for the downpayment before closing? We are expecting additional funds/gift to come before closing but the lender already wants a copy of our bank statements. What is the required paperwork/documentation for the funds that were given to us?

[renriq02]

If the parents are putting less than 20% down...then you need to put AT LEAST 5% down.

If they're putting 20% down, then you can put however much you want.

This applies to conventional loans.

[LynnePatrice]

In my case I believe it was our broker who asked us where the down payment was coming from and we had to prove that it came from there.

We had $15K in gifts from our moms and then we had taken a loan out on a 401K for part of it and part was savings.

We had to show: Bank Statement with deposits or balance on savings, and we had to show the loan paperwork and copy of the check from the 401K loan.

[rcarrillo]

Originally Posted by solanoMan

Hello all. How much of the downpayment can be gifts for a conventional loan? We live in California. We are putting 96kish for downpayment and 80 k of that is our own money and the rest will be given to us by our parents as a gift. Are there any issues with this?

Does our bank statement have to show that we have enough money for the downpayment before closing? We are expecting additional funds/gift to come before closing but the lender already wants a copy of our bank statements. What is the required paperwork/documentation for the funds that were given to us?

The quick answers: disclose, disclose, disclose. Seeking information on here is great, but please talk about this directly with your loan officer. They know far more details (I hope) than we do about your case and they can explain why they need certain items and what your options are.

If you do not trust them, get another lender. If you do not want to disclose for some reason, then that is a sign there is a problem.


Yes you will have to prove you have the cash to close before closing. An underwriter won't approve a loan if you can not show the required money. If there is a gift, they can explain the options and what paperwork will be required.