Why should you get pre-approved?

Some buyers wonder why they are being pushed by their realtor to be pre-approved for a loan before they start shopping for their new home. Let me explain our reasoning behind why we prefer our clients to be pre-approved before we start showing them houses. First of all, it helps us to know that you are a serious buyer, and it helps seller’s to know you are a serious buyer. When you submit an offer to a seller wanting to purchase their home, they want to know that you can afford it, so that they can make the right choice when accepting offers, your offer with a letter of pre-approval will most likely be put above another offer that has no pre-approval letter. Second, getting pre-approved is the only way to know your actual price range. It is a lot harder to find a house for you if we don’t know what price range we are looking in, and how we need to negotiate. Third, we have time on our side if you are pre-approved before we find your home. If we find the house you want, and you are not pre-approved then we have to wait for a lender to take you through that process, if the house has other offers on it then we might lose our opportunity because we can’t get in an offer fast enough. Last, but not least, meeting with your lender first gives you the opportunity to have more time to know and trust them, and if you find you don’t like them, you have time to switch to someone else because you aren’t in the middle of purchasing a home already. I hope this helps you better understand the importance of pre-approval.