Putting the Cart Before the Horse

The FIRST step in the home buying process should be meeting with a lender and getting pre-approved.  Buying a home can be one of the most nerve-racking things we will do in life; why add to it unnecessarily by not truly knowing how much of a home is affordable for you.  Getting the mortgage to fit the house, instead of the other way around, isn’t the wisest strategy.

With rapidly changing underwriting guidelines and lenders removing more and more programs, qualifying for a mortgage today is not the same as it was even as recently as a year ago. Even the seasoned homebuyer may have misconceptions about if they will qualify for a loan and for how much.  It is more important than ever to have a mortgage professional walking alongside buyers through this ever-changing process.

We are seeing more and more first-time home buyers trying to take advantage of the up to $8,000 first-time homebuyer tax credit – which is great.  Unfortunately, many are not being counseled properly on the process. They visit open houses on the weekend for fun and then fall in love with the “perfect” house; only to find out later that they can’t qualify for the mortgage or that the payment is hundreds of dollars more than what they were expecting.  This can be disappointing and traumatic for everyone involved and a situation that can easily be avoided.

We encourage realtors to only spend time showing homes to clients that are pre-approved.  Both realtors and mortgage brokers feel a tremendous responsibility to do the right thing for their clients; as well as a tremendous pressure to fulfill client’s wishes in an effort to gain or keep them, but we do our clients and ourselves a disservice by not guiding them to do things in the right order, armed with accurate knowledge.

Building relationships with our clients to provide successful home ownerships.