Before You Shop for a Home: Get Pre-Approved

Shopping for a new home is so exciting, but there is one major step that many people overlook that can make a huge difference in your home buying experience. Getting pre-approved for your home loan is critical to ensure that you choose a home that fits your budget. After all, it’s no fun to get your heart set on a home you love, only to discover later that your monthly payments will be out of reach. In fact, many realtors require you to get pre-approved before they will even start showing you homes. Likewise, many sellers want to see a pre-approval letter from your bank before proceeding with the transaction. According to the Zillow Group Consumer Housing Trends Report 2017, 92 percent of buyers who finance their home with a mortgage get pre-approved first. The pre-approval process allows you to determine if you have any issues with your credit because the lender will pull your credit and verify your income and assets. People often have items in their credit history that they are not aware of, and such instances can affect your ability to get a home loan. In addition, if you don’t get pre-approved and make an offer to a seller but later find out that you can’t get the financing you need, you have wasted not only your time but your realtor’s time. Once you contact your mortgage lender and start discussing pre-approval, you will need to get all your paperwork organized, including the documentation of your income, your outstanding debts, and a list of your current assets. While this phase of the home buying process takes time, this type of information will have to be gathered anyway, and it is well worth it to get it all done ahead of time. Getting pre-approved is sure to make your home buying experience much more enjoyable, and you can shop with confidence, knowing that the homes you are looking at are well within reach in terms of your finances. We invite you to contact one of our friendly CNB Mortgage Originators today. He or she will be glad to sit down with you and get you pre-qualified so you can be on your way to finding a house that you’ll love to call home.