Why get Pre-approved for a Home Loan?

We’ve recently talked a lot to Sellers letting them know that it’s a great time to put their property on the market because interest rates are at an all time low.  And that houses especially, are selling as fast as we can list them.  But, we need to talk to Buyers as well to let them know how to be prepared when the house you want comes on the market.  It’s not unusual in this Seller’s market that we’ll have multiple offers on a house. 

Let’s say that two are about identical and they are the highest offers.  If one customer submits a pre-approval letter from their lender with the offer and the other customer doesn’t, there’s a real good chance that the one with the letter will be accepted.  That doesn’t mean that the other Buyer couldn’t be approved, just that they hadn’t gone through the process yet.  I’m sure you can already see how important this step could be.  And it doesn’t take more than a phone call to get it started.

If you’re in the market to purchase or maybe even thinking about it, do yourself a favor and call your banker, lender, loan originator and ask them what it’s going to take to get pre-approved.  If they go far enough to check your credit, verify your income, and get approval from underwriters it can reduce the loan closing processing time by as much as a week or two.  And right now so many people are refinancing and either buying more house or less house that appraisers are running 2-3 weeks behind.   Be ProActive and get Approved now!
​-Susan Carpenter, Gateway Properties