Buying A San Antonio Home - Get Loan Prequalified
Posted by Randy Kelley on October 20, 2009
At sanantoniohomequest.com, we believe an educated home buyer is a wise buyer. That’s why we’ve compiled a series of easy to remember essential hints for our home buyer guests.
Here’s one of our most popular hints:
To know how much home you can afford, get loan pre-qualified; and, if you plan to buy a resale property, get loan pre-approved.
On the other hand, if you might buy a new construction property, get loan pre-qualified, but not pre-approved. Why? Because you’ll duplicate your loan pre-approval time and expense if the new home builder attaches your buyer incentives to using his preferred lender.
So, for now, let’s concentrate on the loan pre-qualification issue.
The wise buyer knows his or her home affordability range and a mortgage lender can help with that decision.
So, what should you do?
I recommend that you start by qualifying with more than one lender. Ask each lender for a good faith estimate (GFE) of costs associated with the loan or loans (like a VA vs FHA vs conventional) you might procure. Select the lender that offers to give you the best deal.
When you’re ready to buy a resale property, ask your most promising lender for a loan pre-approval letter. At that time, your selected lender will run a credit check on you, which you will either pay for up front or be charged for at closing.
Your Realtor® should send along your loan pre-approval letter with your resale property purchase offer. Just having your loan pre-approval might make you the winning bidder in a bidding war.
Call me or send an E-mail if you have questions.
I’m Stephanie Kelley, Accredited Buyer’s Representative (ABR®), Certified Residential Specialist (CRS®), Graduate Realty Institute (GRI ®). I’m a Realtor ® at Keller Williams Legacy, San Antonio. You can visit me at sanantoniohomequest.com, call me at (210) 867-8743 or (210) 863-2661, or E-mail me at swkrealtor@aol.com.
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