Get Pre-approved!
Are you thinking about buying a home? Maybe you have been paging through homes listed for sale online dreaming about how your furniture would look inside? Well, before you become to distracted by kitchen cabinets, master bathrooms and whether you need a garage let’s talk about becoming pre-approved. Pre-approved, what is that your asking? Well let’s discuss that in more detail here.
What is a pre-approval?
A pre-approval is an evaluation by a lender to see how much home you can be approved for. This pre-approval is really your golden ticket for going out and looking at homes. With a pre-approval you can have the confidence that you are looking at homes that you can afford and be approved to purchase.
Why get a pre-approval?
A lender we work with, Angela Mast with Stearns Lending says, “the biggest reason to get a pre-approval is that you don’t want to fall in love with a house you may not be able to get financing for.” Before finding your dream home, let’s make sure you are comfortable with paying for it and the bank is comfortable with loaning you the money. There are more pieces to financing then just deciding how much you think you can afford. The bank is going to look at your credit history and your debt-to-income levels as part of deciding your approval price.
How do you get a pre-approval?
You will want to connect with a lender and let them know you are thinking about buying a home. The lender is going to ask you for some financial documentation possibly including bank statements, pay stubs, tax returns and more. This might seem a bit overwhelming, but it will give the lender the clearest picture possible to help you in picking a budget for your home purchase. Along with the documentation the lender is going to need to be able to pull your credit to review your scores. Some lenders offer the option to do your pre-approval online. Angela Mast recommends, “clients to use my digital mortgage app, which is quick and painless with no paperwork required it uses digital verification of income, employment and assets.”
How do use a pre-approval in purchasing a home?
So, your pre-approval isn’t just a piece of paper that tells you how much you can afford. When we do find the home of your dreams and we have decided to make an offer, we will need to submit proof to the seller that you can afford to purchase the home. We do this by submitting a copy of your pre-approval. This is a key piece of the offer process, and with the busy spring market approaching you will want to be prepared to move forward with an offer quickly and not risk another buyer beating you to the punch.
So, remember, if you are thinking of purchasing a home in 2018, now would be a good time to connect with a lender and get pre-approved! We would be happy to connect you with one of our preferred lenders and then we can get started picking out your dream home knowing you can afford it too!
