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Home Buying Starts With A Reliable Prequalification

For most Americans, a home is the single largest financial transaction of their lives. For many it is unnecessarily frustrating and stressful. There are two ways to approach the home buying process and how you get started can have a huge influence on how you feel when it is over.

Shopping First

Browsing Zillow or Realtor.com just to see what’s out there can be fun and you certainly don’t need to involve a real estate professional in that. When it’s time to for things to get real, starting the process online is the biggest mistake you can make. Online listings are the picked-over clearance rack of homes for sale.

Not only are online listings inaccurate and outdated, but anytime you request to learn more about a home, your contact information is sold to realtors and lenders and then resold to lead qualifiers and then resold to whoever is willing to pay for it and since you agreed to the terms and conditions when you submitted your request, being on the National Do Not Call registry won’t prevent those calls.

Even if you do find a home that meets your needs and is still available, most sellers won’t accept an offer that isn’t prequalified, so any delay between finding your dream home and making an offer (like waiting for a prequalification letter) could result in losing your dream home to another buyer.

Starting the home buying process online with a shopping list of wants and needs will often result in time wasted on houses you simply cannot afford. What’s worse, this will make the houses in your price range seem a bit disappointing in comparison. A good Realtor like your Selling Made Simple agent knows this and will require a prequalification before offering to show you homes.

Prequalification First

When working with a quality lending team like the Boles Group at Bay Equity, your loan officer will always consult with you about your short and long-term goals, your financial situation, your housing needs and how all of that fits into the current real estate market. This conversation is the starting point in getting you prequalified and setting your housing budget.

When all relevant information has been gathered and analyzed, your loan officer will present you with the funding options available to you and will let you know the price range in which you can expect to qualify. Once are prequalified, you can discuss your housing wants and needs in the context of a realistic budget. When you find the house of your dreams your realtor can submit a rock solid, prequalified offer right there on the spot.