IET Real Estate represents a lot of sellers of Los Angeles short sales. Visit IETrealestate.com to read about Long Beach short sales and in other local areas.
Are you delighted with the extension to the first time home buyers tax credit and raring to go out and find yourself a new home? Well, you’re not the only one; many people across the country are shopping for their first homes so that they can take advantage of the tax credit and get into a home of their own. While it is exciting to go out and look at available homes when you first decide that you want to buy, it is a good idea to get yourself prequalified and preapproved for a mortgage before you spend a lot of time searching the market.
If you don’t know how much money that you can get a mortgage for, it is almost pointless to look at homes; you can’t put a valid offer on a home if you don’t know if you can actually get a mortgage for that amount. If you have taken the time to get your prequalification and preapproval completed, then you know exactly what the bank will let you have and what kind of range that you can offer a seller for their home.
Don’t be confused with the jargon regarding mortgages; there is a big difference between prequalifying and preapproval. Prequalifying for a mortgage is based on estimates and is not a guarantee that you can get a mortgage for a particular amount. When you are preapproved for a mortgage, you are guaranteed that the bank will cover you for a specific amount based on documentation of your income and expenses.
Using the amount that the bank has determined that you can borrow, your buyer’s agent can help you by showing you homes within your price range; also, because you know how much money the bank will let you borrow, you can make offers on homes.
Having your mortgage preapproved really streamlines the home buying process for everyone involved. Home sellers are far more interested in offers that come from prospective buyers with preapproved mortgages because they know that that buyer is one big step closer to actually making a purchase. Buyers who don’t have a preapproved mortgage appear to most buyers to just not be very serious about purchasing a home.
So, if you are serious about your home buying endeavour, contact your bank and ask them about the process of getting a preapproved mortgage; it will show both your buyer’s agent and any home sellers out there that you are serious about buying a home and make the experience smoother for you all.
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