Home Loan Pre-Qualification vs. Pre-Approval

Once you've decided to buy a property, the first step is not to go house hunting. Instead, you should find out what you can borrow. In doing so, it is important to understand the difference between loan qualification and approval.

Pre-Qualified

Getting pre-qualified for a home loan carries little if any weight when it comes to actually getting the loan issued. Let's take a look at why.

Its time to buy your first home and you've done the research. The first step is to find out how much you can borrow. Down to the bank you go for a sit down with a friendly home loan officer. This person asks you questions about finances, salaries, credit and so forth. You might even be asked to fill out a short questionnaire. After a surprisingly short time, the bank officer suggests a loan amount of around $300,000 is probable. Being really helpful, the bank officer even prints out a form letter with your name and the pre-qualification amount of $300,000. Wow, that was easy...perhaps to easy?

The problem with pre-qualifications is they are based on best guesses. The bank officer looks at no hard facts. When it comes time to actually apply for the loan, you can be assured the lending institution isn't going to be willing to guess. In fact, you might be told you don't qualify for a $300,000 home loan when push comes to shove. You might only qualify for $250,000. In nightmare situations, you might not qualify at all because of credit problems. In short, home loan pre-qualification is a waste of time for the most part.

Pre-Approval

Getting pre-APPROVED for a home loan is definitely your best option. Getting pre-approved for a home loan is an excellent strategy because you actually go through the process. Issues such as income, credit scores, personal wealth and so on are resolved. At the end of the process, the bank agrees to issue a loan up to a certain amount contingent on an appraisal of the home you eventually decide to buy. The lender will produce a letter indicating as much, and it is a very valuable letter.

A pre-approval letter is instant gold in the real estate market. If you were selling a home, would you prefer a buyer with a pre-approval letter or one without? The answer is obvious and leads to another advantage. In the current market, it is likely you will be bidding against other parties for property. A seller is much more likely to select your bid because they know the loan process will go smoothly. This can make all the difference when it comes to closing a deal.

Determining how much money you can borrow is the first step in the purchase process. Just make sure you get a pre-approval letter, not pre-qualification guesses.

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Getting Pre-Approved for a Mortgage Makes Buying Easy

Whether buying or selling a home, the real estate transaction process can be seriously stressful. Hey, no pain, no gain. Getting pre-approved for a mortgage can seriously reduce stress levels.

Lender Approval

Many people make the mistake of going house hunting without knowing exactly how a large a mortgage they can get. This leads to incredible frustration when a dream home is found, but you can’t get a loan. For some shoppers, the frustration and stress leads them to throw their arms in the air and give up on the process. While an understandable reaction, the stress and frustration can be greatly reduced by getting pre-approved for a mortgage loan.

Getting pre-approved by a lender involves going through the full mortgage application process. You are going to fill out all the forms, provide tax returns or salary verification, have your credit run and so on. The bank will do a full analysis regarding whether you are mortgage worthy. It will also lay out the specific requirements it expects you to meet including the down payment amount and the specifications your potential home must meet. To this end, the pre-approval process is always contingent on the appraised price of the prospective home and any defects found in the home inspection.

Once a lender approves you for a loan, a magical thing happens. The lender will issue a pre-approval letter. The lender letter indicates the bank has approved you for a loan, the specific amount of the loan and often how long the pre-approval will last.

The pre-approval letter is the golden egg in the home purchasing process. It gives you a significant advantage over other people bidding on the same home. Imagine you are a seller who receives to bids within a few thousand dollars of each other. One bid has a pre-approval letter from the lender and the other does not. Which are you going to choose?

Getting pre-approved also has additional benefits. As you go through the process, the bank may alert you to problems. You can then go ahead and take the necessary steps to fix the loans. Compare this to trying to get a loan while in escrow. You are under a lot of pressure to get the loan in a thirty or sixty day period. If you fail to get the loan, you lose your good faith deposit, which is often thousands of dollars. Obviously, that is a disaster.

Whenever possible, get pre-approved for a mortgage before shopping for a home. It will save untold amounts of stress and make the buying process much easier.

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