Home Buying Tips

Mortgage Pre-Approval

There are "pre-qualified" and "pre-approved" buyers. Pre-qualified means that the buyer has spent a few minutes on the phone with a mortgage consultant and based on the information provided by the buyer, has been given the go ahead on a tentative mortgage amount. There is no verification of the provided information and therefore most Realtors consider pre-qualified as nearly worthless.

Pre-approved means that the information (employment, credit, debts, etc.) has been verified by the mortgage consultant and Realtors therefore consider these buyers much more attractive when analyzing offers. It is not uncommon for a seller to accept a lower offer by a pre-approved buyer versus a higher offer by a pre-qualified buyer, because the seller and his/her agent knows that the deal is more likely to be a painless process.

By getting pre-approved before you begin looking at homes you will be able to jump on a home when you find what you like and you will have a stronger negotiating position. I work with several professional and experienced mortgage brokers who can help you obtain pre-approval status without you even having to commit to using them when you need the loan.

Step 2: Finding Homes...