The Ultimate Home Buyer's Guide

Get Pre-Approved For A Mortgage

If you have not already done so, you need to get pre-approved for a mortgage. This topic is a good example of why it is

important for us to be working as “partners” on the same page...

Sometimes you might hear the terms pre-approval and pre-qualification used interchangeably. However, a pre-approval is totally different than being pre-qualified. Getting pre-qualified is the initial step in the process. The lender may ask you a few simple questions to pre-qualify you. This only means once you are pre-qualified, you can move on to the next step. Getting a pre-approval.

Many buyers feel like agents are being pushy when they suggest getting pre-approved. They take offense. They resist. They make excuses. They look at it as the agent being nosy, looking to see how much the buyer can afford, or looking to make sure the buyer can even afford a home.

Well, it is exactly that! And there is nothing wrong with an agent asking them to do it either. 

Unfortunately, agents who are not entirely confident (or perhaps just desperate for business) let it slide. Then they show their client homes that, it turns out, they could never afford...or it turns out they could not afford a home at all. And that hurts both the agent and the client in different ways.

Beyond just knowing that you can get a mortgage, and for how much, getting pre-approved will do a couple of other things for you:

You will need it when you want to submit an offer on a home. And in those moments, time can be of the essence. If you need to rush to get pre-approved, you may lose the home if you can’t get it in time.

Starting to talk with lenders now will give you time to choose which lender you want to work with, shop rates and products, and get the best overall loan for your situation.

(NOTE: Once you are under contract, you will not have much time to shop around for rates and your preferred lender.)

You can certainly ask any lender you already have a relationship with, but if you want any recommendations, just let us know. We’ll provide you with my short list of lenders whom we know and trust.

Once you have selected a lender, make sure to let me know who it is so we can establish a dialogue and be ready to go when we start submitting offers! Remember, we are all a team working to help you.