I hear a lot of buyers start looking for a home without getting preapproved for a mortgage. Of course, it doesn’t hurt to look online and get a general idea of prices and get a feel of the market.
But if you are serious about purchasing a home it’s strongly recommended to get preapproved first and here is why:
– You don’t want to waste time looking at homes outside your price range.
Imagine you are going to look at homes, fell in love with a home and want to buy it. After talking to the mortgage banker, you learn that you are not qualified for this price. So you just wasted your time, and you are emotionally distressed.
– You don’t want to waste your time looking at homes outside of your monthly payments you can afford.
You can decide for yourself the amount of the house you think is a good price and will go to look for the house in this price range. After you pick a house, you will go through preapproval process to learn that your mortgage payment is more than you expected and know that it puts your outside of comfort zone. So it’s good to know upfront to make a weighted decision.
– Sellers will not accept an offer without the Pre-Approval letter.
If you found the home and you really liked. Then you run the numbers, calculated your monthly mortgage payment and determined that you are comfortable with the payment so you want to proceed with submitting an offer but later to learn that your offer is not effective as it’s not backed by preapproval letter. The only way sellers know you can afford this home is to see your preapproval.
Fill out application to learn how much you can get preapproved for!
