you bet. this is standard procedure and also good business.

Before I answer this, let me say I am not an attorney. My opinion's should not be considered legal advice. If you seek a legal answer, you need to speak with an attorney.

Now for my opinion.

A seller (Bank or Otherwise) can mandate that before they will consider any offer from you that you must frist be pre-approved by their lender. That DOES NOT MEAN YOU HAVE TO USE THEIR LENDER. You can be pre-approved by 2, 3, 4, 5, 20 different sources, and still use whoever gives you the best deal.

As it has already been pointed out, sellers in this day age want to make sure they are working with honest to goodness buyers. I say that because we are now in a seriously different market than we have ever been. In fact, more than ever lenders are going through last minute, day of closing credit worthiness checks of their "Pre-Approved" buyer's.

For example, just a couple of days ago, I had a closing scheduled where the buyer's had their U-Haul outside my clients house, we received notice utilites had been switched and I had already driven the key over to the Selling Agent.

My clients, the seller's were at the table half way throught their document signing when I got a call from the other agent stating that the buyer's couldn't get financed. They had been pre-approved with a large national bank. Come to find out, the 3rd underwritting picked up on something the previous 2 missed and that was three years ago my client couldn't account for 2 months of employment. They searched everywhere for a new lender however, they ended up parking their U-Haul outside of a motel room for 2 weeks and ultimately retracted their offer, got a short term apartment and in the meantime, we got another offer and closed on it in a month.

So, in other words, yes, a seller can require you get pre-approved by their bank however, you can use whoever you want.

The lender letter you have and lender letters in general ,do not carry the weight they once did, in fact many pre-qual letters are not considered bona-fide proof of financing by todays sellers. In today's lending climate, all sellers should ensure that buyers are COMPLETELY qualified. When buying bank owned, they play by thier own rules, period. There is little way to avoid the requirement, it's the cost of doing business with banks.

Thanks for the responses. I failed to note that I am already preapproved with another lender. Wouldn't that suffice? The problem is that I don't want my credit to be run again and would like to avoid decreasing my score.

This is a classic case of you needing to have someone working for you. The selling agent works for the seller, you should have a Buyer's agent working for you. They can handle these questions and make sure that you are given all of the information you need (not just what the seller wants you to know) in order to make a sound decission.

It is common to require a letter from your lender stating that you are qualified and sometimes the bank that owns a property will be able to give you a very competitive offer, but they cannot force which lender you use.

The bank can require that the listing agent have all offers pre-qualified through whatever lender they want, they can not, however, force you to get your financing through any particular lender. You should have a buyer's agent help you with this, it's free to you, and that way you have someone looking out for YOUR interests instead of the bank's.

I am very familiar with Woodland Hills, and my Partner lives there, so I would be happy to answer any questions you have, or help you with this property. Please feel free to contact me.

Good luck!

This practice is common, and in some cases you can still use the lender of your choice. This is thier way of driving traffic to an affiliated business. I am not an lawyer, but I do know this happens in our area.

You would be wise to have an agent help you...it does not cost you anything! I can help you find a good agent in your area! Let me know if you'd like some help.