Commitment Letter

"Dear Rebecca. It’s been fun and all, but asking me to move in with you was a real turn-off. So, uh…have a nice life."

Yeah, that would be a, uh…“fear of commitment” letter.

So…what’s a commitment letter? All right, well… you need dough. But you don't need it today. You need it in 6 months, when construction is finished on your cabin by the lake. At that point, you’ll convert your very expensive building loan into a normal mortgage.

Well, you can go to the bank and, for a small(ish) fee, get a commitment letter...which stipulates that, assuming nothing material changes between now and then, you will get a loan for $152,000 at 5% fixed interest for 30 years.

The bank is then committed to giving you that loan…when, eventually, you need it. That way, you don’t have to worry about your bank, uh…breaking up with you.

Which is nice, because it’s tough getting the “it’s not you, it’s me” speech from a guy in a bow tie.