Buyers, The Importance of Getting Pre-Approved for a Mortgage at Present

A lot of Realtors® want you to be pre-approved before they start showing you properties, because they want to make sure that you are a viable candidate to buy a house. Some people, however, are offended that a Realtor® may require this pre-approval, but it is understandable, because they work for free until a deal closes. If they show you houses for two days straight, and you cannot qualify for a mortgage, then it is two days without pay for that person.

But there are other reasons to want to be pre-approved these days. First, the credit requirements are getting tougher. Therefore, it may take a few months to get items on the credit report straightened out or removed. And it will take those months before you can get a pre-approval, and even think about putting an offer in on a house.

Next, what I am finding is that houses are, in the past couple of weeks, selling very quickly. At least, they are selling quickly in the market in which I work. A man asked me at the beginning of the week to set up appointments for today to see four houses. Two of them sold by Tuesday. A third one sold today. On Wednesday, I picked out two more properties for him to see. One of those also sold. Therefore, when it is time to go out and look, you should have your finances ready so that when you find the house you really like, you can make an offer immediately, and it won't slip past you.

There is also a third reason, which is a combination of the above, and the First Time Home Buyer Tax Credit. If you need to buy before December 1, 2009 to get the $8,000 tax credit, and you need three months to straighten out your credit, and a month to look for a house, and two months to get to the settlement table, you could be looking at a six month period from start to finish. Of course it could be shorter, but it would be better to start, at least, with the financial end so that does not hold you up when you are ready to put an offer in on a house, or prevent you from taking advantage of the $8000 First Time Home Buyer Tax Credit, because you miss the deadline.