Shopping for a home before getting pre-approved for a mortgage is the equivalent of walking into a grocery store without a wallet. Yet, the vast majority of homebuyers don’t get a loan pre-approval for the house hunt.
- Buyers avoid boredom
Buyers often are eager to start looking at homes and tend to leave what they view as the boring, bureaucratic part of the home buying process for last, says Michael Highfield, associate professor of finance and head of Mississippi State University’s department of finance and economics. “But in this competitive market, any serious buyer should pursue a pre-approval from a lender in advance to beginning a home search,” he adds.
- Hardly anyone does it
Less than 10 percent of buyers who got a mortgage in 2012 got loan pre-approvals, according to Home Mortgage Disclosure Act data compiled by LendingPatterns.com. That percentage might be somewhat lower than the actual number of buyers who get pre-approved, some lenders say, because of differences in lenders’ definitions of “pre-approval.”
- No pre-approval, no accepted offer
But real estate and loan professionals say it’s common to come across buyers who skip the pre-approval process.
“It happens every day,” says Oliver McConnell, a real estate Broker/Agent and owner of McConnell and Associates in Sarasota, Florida. “I can’t believe I still get offers today without a pre-approval.” As with many other agents and sellers, McConnell says he rejects offers from buyers who don’t have pre-approval letters from their banks. “You have to have a pre-approval and it must be a real pre-approval where the lender has verified not just your credit, but bank statements, tax returns — and I call the lender to verify that,” he says.
- What is a pre-approval?
A pre-approval is different from a pre-qualification. With a pre-qualification, the lender relies on information provided by the buyer to estimate how much the borrower could qualify for. With a pre-approval, the lender verifies the borrower’s information and documentation to determine exactly how much it would be willing to lend to that borrower.
“The documents to get pre-approved are the same documents that you would need to get a mortgage,” says Michael Iltis, assistant Vice President and mortgage specialist with ILTIS Lending Group of Sarasota, Florida. “Pay stubs, last two years’ W-2s, last two federal returns, two months’ worth of bank statements of all types of accounts, your credit report.” A pre-approval is not a loan commitment, but it helps speed up the underwriting and loan approval process, ILTIS says.
- Don’t be afraid to face your loan reality
Some buyers put off the loan application because they fear a lender may not approve them for the amount they plan to spend to buy the house, ILTIS says. “It’s like when people don’t go to the doctor for their annual checkup when they are afraid to find out what’s wrong with them,” he adds. “That’s the same thing with getting pre-approved.” Others simply don’t want to share an abundance of private information with a lender until they actually find the home they want, he adds.
- Friends and family can’t approve you for a loan
It’s typical for potential buyers to assume they qualify for a certain mortgage amount based on what a neighbor, friend or relative with a similar credit profile bought, ILTIS says.
A recent survey by NeighborWorks America found that nearly 4 in 10 people who are thinking of buying a home first seek advice from friends and family who own a home. Only 16 percent say they approach a real estate agent for advice in that early stage, and mortgage lenders are approached only 9 percent of the time, according to the survey.
- You are beyond compare
Even if you pay your bills on time and earn about the same as the friend who just got that $300,000 mortgage, don’t assume you qualify for the same loan. “A credit score difference of 700 to 680 can severely affect one’s ability in terms of down payment,” ILTIS says. Getting pre-approved before you shop for a loan also allows buyers time to fix unexpected errors on their credit reports, ILTIS adds. “There are 40 million errors on credit reports,” she says. “You need to have time to fix that if you happen to be one of them. When you find the house that you want, you do not have time to get pre-approved, and if somebody else has it, there’s no way the seller is going to look at your offer.”
For an application and more information on getting pre-approved call Michael ILTIS:
(941) 954-4252 | www.ILTISLENDING.com
