Mortgage Pre-Approval

You want your home shopping experience to be as stress-free as possible. After all, you are making what could very well be the biggest financial investment of your life.

One of the most important things you can do to streamline the process is to be PRE APPROVED for a mortgage. This is a formal process that can only be done by a lender. You must complete a loan application and provide supporting financial documentation. This is the same process that would be followed if you were applying for a loan after finding your home.

If you are deemed creditworthy, the lender will use your income and net worth information to set a maximum loan amount. The lender will provide a PRE APPROVAL LETTER, which states that the lender will finance up to a specified amount, as long as the home meets the lender’s approval. The pre approval letter generally has an expiration date, which the lender may choose to extend.

This is not only beneficial to you, the buyer, but to the seller as well. Sellers want a transaction that goes as smoothly as possible, and buyers that are pre approved give the seller the confidence that you mean business. In some cases, pre approval can be the difference between purchasing the home you desire, or losing your opportunity to someone who is pre approved. Remember, the seller wants the transaction to be as trouble free as the buyer.

The link below take you to mortgage calculators that will allow you to find out just how much mortgage you can afford and what it will cost you. Pre qualifying is different than pre approval in that pre qualifying is an informal process that should be used only for purposes of estimation.