I am Peter Thompson, My goal is to take the mystery out of the home buying and mortgage process, and help home buyers understand their options.
You know that it makes sense to buy a home, but how do you go about it? There are so many things to consider. What type of house do you want? What’s the best area to buy in, and what’s the best way to find a home? How do you negotiate the contract? What happens between the time you agree to buy the property and the closing? These are all good questions that you’ll need to make decisions on, but before you do anything else, you need to know how much of a house you can afford.
Pre-qualification and pre-approval:
To find out what you qualify for you need to be pre-qualified, or pre-approved. Both terms are different levels of the same thing. With both, you are sharing your financial information with a mortgage loan officer, and they are figuring out how much of a home you can afford to buy, and what the best program is for your needs.
How much of a mortgage you can afford, and the type of mortgage you qualify for, go a long way toward determining what kind of home you will buy. The good news is that there are now more mortgage options, and it’s easier to qualify for a loan, than ever before. We have loan options for nearly every situation – in fact, I have over 1,500 programs available. My job is to go over your situation, and find the program that works best for your own particular goals and needs. Choosing the right financing can save you thousands of dollars over the time you have the loan.
The difference between the two programs is that with pre-qualification you are telling the loan officer what your situation is, and they base their decision on what you tell them. Pre-approval takes it a step farther and verifies, or proves, that all the information you told us is correct, and runs the information by an underwriter who makes a final decision. With a pre-approval you are putting everything in writing. You will sign the loan application and all the disclosures that are part of the application package. With a pre-approval you are actually approved for the loan before you even find a home you’re interested in.
When you first start looking, a pre-qualification is probably all you need. But once you are serious about buying, a pre-approval will make sure there aren’t any unwanted surprises at the end – it will also help save you money when you go to negotiate your contract. Years ago, it could take a week or more to get a pre-approval. Now I can usually do it with a single phone call, and have a preliminary answer for you within an hour.
To get pre-approved we’ll need some documentation. Depending on your situation and the loan program, we may need more or less, but typically we’ll need to see the following: