Get Pre-approved Before You Buy

So, you’ve made the decision—you’re ready to buy a house. You’ve got that dream home pictured in your head, now all you have to do is find it, make your offer and move in.  Right?  Unfortunately, it’s not that easy.

Your first step towards buying a home should be to find a trustworthy mortgage professional.  A mortgage professional can help you can save time, money, and increase your bargaining power when it comes to buying your new house.  Primarily, your mortgage broker can tell you if you can qualify to purchase a home at all.  Second, if you are in the market for purchasing, your broker can tell you just what kind of home you can qualify for.  This is the ultimate time-saver.  You and your Realtor don’t want to run around for a month or two looking at house listings, finally find your dream home, then find out that you cannot afford it.  It would be better to know up front what you can and cannot buy before you start looking, to deter that feeling of disappointment.  A mortgage broker can help you do just that, and achieve the wonderful feeling of success in finding the right home at the right price.

Another perk in getting pre-approved is the possibility of getting preferential treatment from house sellers.  Sellers are prone to giving top priority to potential buyers that have gone that extra step.  They are looking to save time and money, and know that you are too.  They want deals that are going to work.  They don’t want a home under contract, only to find out that their buyer cannot qualify.  So, if you and are among other bidders who are not pre-approved, odds are the seller will accept the bid from you.  Even if you make a bid slightly lower than another potential buyer, and that other person is not pre-approved, you still have the upper hand.

However, there are different levels on which you can be approved.  The lowest level is usually called pre-qualification, which involves a mortgage professional taking your information (income, expenses, etc.), calculating everything up and making a decision on how much you can qualify for based on the given information.  The next level of pre-approval is when the mortgage professional runs the loan through automated underwriting to get an approval, provided that all your info can be verified.  The highest level would be running the loan through a lender and actually completing all the verifications. Obviously, the higher level of pre-approval gives you more to stand on and carries the most weight when bidding on your dream home.  In any case, your mortgage professional should provide you with a letter stating what level you have been pre-approved for.

Hopefully, by now the picture is clear and you’ll be sure to call a mortgage professional before starting your house search.  And maybe, just maybe, the process might even be fun.

Courtesy of : The Kiper Team Offices:(636) 898-123, HOTLINE: (314) 729-1010 CLICK HERE to email us.