Mortgage gift letter template, and what it must say

Mortgage gift letter template

Copy this, fill in the brackets and hand it to the person giving you the money. They sign it. Nothing here is a legal document drawn up for you, and a lender can ask for more than it shows.

GIFT LETTER

Donor name: [full name of the person giving the gift]
Donor address: [street, city, state, ZIP]
Donor telephone number: [phone number]
Donor's relationship to the borrower: [for example: parent, sibling, domestic partner, fiance(e)]

Amount of the gift: $[amount]   (check one: [ ] actual amount   [ ] maximum amount)

Statement: I am giving this money to [borrower's full name] as a gift. No repayment of any kind is expected, now or later.

Donor's signature: ______________________________

Two small additions are ours, not Fannie Mae's: the borrower's name inside the statement, so the letter says who got the gift, and the check-box for actual or maximum. Fannie Mae does not list a date as required, so the template has no date line. If your lender wants one, add it next to the signature. If the gift comes from a trust or an estate, add the name of that trust or estate account, because Fannie Mae says the letter must name it.

What a gift letter must include

This is the list from the Selling Guide's page on personal gifts (topic B3-4.3-04, dated February 4, 2026).

The CFPB says it more briefly. For some loans, a gift can pay the down payment if you can show where the money came from and give a signed statement that it is a gift and not a loan from a third party.

FHA gift letter requirements

FHA loans follow HUD's Handbook 4000.1, not Fannie Mae's guide. We could not open the handbook or HUD's FHA help article when we checked, so this page does not say what an FHA gift letter must contain. Ask your FHA lender, who will have the current list.

Who can give you a gift for a down payment

Fannie Mae allows two groups of donors.

• Relatives: your spouse, your child or another dependent, or anyone related to you by blood, marriage, adoption or legal guardianship.
• People with a family-like tie: a domestic partner (or the partner's relative), someone you are engaged to marry, a former relative, or someone with a long-standing, family-like or mentoring relationship.

The donor cannot be, or be affiliated with, the builder, the developer, the real estate agent or any other interested party. A seller who meets those conditions may give a gift.

If you are buying with a partner you are not married to, note that a domestic partner and a partner's relative are on the list. Your lender decides how it applies to your case.

How the lender checks that the gift is real

The letter is one half. The other is proof that the money moved. Fannie Mae says the lender must verify that the gift is in the donor's account or has been transferred to yours. Any of these counts:

• A copy of the donor's check and your deposit slip.
• A copy of the donor's withdrawal slip and your deposit slip.
• Evidence of an electronic transfer to your account or to the closing agent.
• A copy of the donor's check to the closing agent.
• A settlement statement showing the closing agent got the donor's check.

If the money has not moved before closing, the lender must document that the donor gave it to the closing agent by electronic transfer, certified check, cashier's check or another official check.

The CFPB adds that lenders are generally required to verify the source of your income and down payment funds, and that some kinds of loans do not allow gift funds. Ask what paperwork yours needs before the money moves, not after.

Gift tax on money given for a house

The IRS says the annual gift tax exclusion for 2026 is $19,000 per recipient. Its example: give each of your children $19,000 in 2026 and the exclusion applies to each gift. Spouses who give property they own together can each use it, so $38,000 per recipient. The IRS also says the donor is generally the one responsible for paying any gift tax. What that means for a particular gift is a question for a tax professional.

Keeping the money straight when you are two

If a gift goes to one of you, or to both, write down who got what and when. It matters for the paperwork now and for any talk later about who put in how much. Saving for a house as a couple covers how to plan the down payment together, and Wonderful keeps track of who owes whom between the two of you.