Choosing Your Lender on a Bank Owned Home

Yesterday I was showing a very nice bank owned property to clients who decided to have me write an offer for them. But before the bank would review their offer, they required that the buyers get preapproved by them first. Even though the buyers were already preapproved by another lender, it still was a requirement. A bank cannot require that you use a specific lender to actually purchase the home, but they can (and often do) require that you get preapproved with them first. They do that to ensure they 1) are dealing with a credible buyer and 2) are given an opportunity to get your loan business. So who should you have do the loan? Having been involved in a several of these in the past, I would suggest that you keep an outside lender as your primary source. That way you still have an independent source looking out for your best interest. Remember, when you have the Bank Owned lender do your loan, you are really working with the seller.