When you’re ready to find a home, the first step is to get pre-approved. Wouldn’t you be completely bummed if you found the perfect house, only to learn later that you couldn’t qualify for it? That’s the first reason getting pre-approved is so important, but let’s discuss the other reasons.
Streamline Your House Hunt
Most homeowners start out by browsing homes for sale online to get an idea of what neighborhoods and housing styles they like. If you don’t know what you can afford, you may be looking out of your price range and wasting your time. You may also be looking below what you would have qualified for and not getting the right home for you.
Higher Acceptance Rate for Buyers With Pre-Approval
Once you find the perfect home, the next step can go two different ways depending on a pre-approval.
REALTORS® and sellers are less likely to accept offers from a buyer without a pre-approval. This really comes into play when there are multiple offers. Even if you’re the highest offer, if the sellers lack confidence in yours because you’re not pre-approved, they may go with another offer (even if it’s lower). If they are going to take their house off the market, they want to make sure they pick the strongest buyer.
And on the other side, if you are pre-approved, you may have more room to negotiate. Sellers may be more will ing to lower the price, include appliances, cover closing costs or make other allowances to work with a pre-approved buyer.
Alleviate Additional Stress by Getting Pre-approved
Finally, skipping this step can completely overwhelm a buyer. I’ve seen it happen before. You may spend longer looking for a home, or you may get turned down once or twice when you finally do make an offer. Or, you may get your offer accepted only to find out you can’t afford the house.
Bottom line: If you’re a pre-approved buyer, you know you’re a qualified buyer, you know there are lenders willing to work with you, and you can feel much more confident when you make an offer! Ready, set go… get pre-approved! I work with some great lenders so let me know if you’d like a recommendation!
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