Personal Finance

What do you need to make an offer on a house?

  • Last Updated:
  • Feb 9th, 2006 8:53 am
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Deal Expert
User avatar
Aug 22, 2003
15540 posts
981 upvotes
Niagara Falls
I honestly don't think the 90 day "rule" is a CMHC thing. We only had our downpayment in the bank for less than 30 days before we closed. I realize we did things a little unconventionally in order to raise our downpayment though. Ours actually came from the sale of cattle, pretty conventional out west but not in Ontario, especially not conventional for Niagara Falls. :) We had to provide the bank with the registration papers for every head and when sold we needed to provide the sale papers to prove it was not coming from a loan.
Jr. Member
Mar 14, 2004
188 posts
CSK'sMom wrote:I honestly don't think the 90 day "rule" is a CMHC thing. We only had our downpayment in the bank for less than 30 days before we closed. I realize we did things a little unconventionally in order to raise our downpayment though. Ours actually came from the sale of cattle, pretty conventional out west but not in Ontario, especially not conventional for Niagara Falls. :) We had to provide the bank with the registration papers for every head and when sold we needed to provide the sale papers to prove it was not coming from a loan.
Technically it came from the sale of an asset that you had for more than 90 days. It shouldn't matter whether it's cattle or mutual funds. As you mentioned, it was due to the transaction of a common asset in the area that you are in.
Deal Expert
User avatar
Aug 22, 2003
15540 posts
981 upvotes
Niagara Falls
Nope Droog. Not one bank considers livestock of any kind an asset and for good reason. As a live, perishable commodity they are high risk along with the fact that they are virtually untraceable. Cattle die, bottoms fall out of markets (think recent past with BSE) and cattle disappear. Cattle are not a common asset around here, just the opposite. Banks only consider things assets if they can come after it if you default, is the way it was explained to us...
Jr. Member
Mar 14, 2004
188 posts
O.K. The rule isn't so much that you must have the funds for a period of 90 days, but that you cannot have any unexplained large deposits in that period. There are many reasons why someone could have a large deposit in that period, such as the sale of an asset (or commodity), an inheritance, a pay bonus from your employer, a lottery winning. As long as it can be explained. CMHC does let you borrow money for the downpayment under certain circumstances, but if your debt servicing ratios go beyond their acceptable range (and a 40% TDS is not the absolute limit, they will make exceptions) they could cancel their approval. You can in fact borrow the entire downpayment.

Keep in mind though, that if you get an approval from a bank with 10% down, 4 months before closing, and you are at your debt servicing ratio limit - then go out and lease a vehicle, or fill your new home with "don't pay for a year" furniture, they can find out and pull your mortgage 2 days before closing.
Deal Addict
Dec 4, 2004
1982 posts
10 upvotes
Kingston
when i got my mortgage, i was told the 90 day rule applied because alot of people borrow money from family members for a DP. They said by having it in my name for 90 days previous it proved (whatever) that the money was actually mine, and not borrowed from another source.
They wanted it to be mine and not borrowed because that would increase my debt ratio without them knowing.
that's the runaround they gave me anyhow.
I also wans't able to borrow against any rrsp's that hadn't been invested for 90 days. i KNOW that's a real rule :)

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