Are you finally shopping for your first home and looking at various houses for sales? If so, know that you are also going to have to start shopping for a mortgage as well. Here are a couple of tips that are going to get you through the mortgage process.
Get Pre-Approved Early
A mistake that many first-time homeowners make is not getting pre-approved early on for a mortgage. This can cause a problem in two potential ways that you may not be aware of.
The biggest problem that you'll have is not being ready for when you finally find a house you want to buy. You need to act quickly when you finally find your dream starter home, and not having a pre-approval is going to set you back. Other buyers are going to have a pre-approval letter showing how much their lender is willing to provide for a mortgage, and you will not have that letter. This can lead to other offers looking better than yours, and your offer ultimately being rejected.
In addition, not having a pre-approval means that you could be wasting time looking at homes out of your price range. By knowing how much your lender will provide for a mortgage, you'll be able to narrow in on the type of home you can afford and not look at homes that would require a mortgage that is too big.
Work With Multiple Lenders
Once you are ready to move forward with getting a mortgage, it will be best to work with multiple lenders at once. If you work with one lender exclusively, you may be put into a situation where your mortgage is denied and you are then scrambling to work with a new lender quickly.
You can actually start the mortgage approval process with several lenders at once, and you do not need to commit to a lender until you are approved and ready to lock in your rate. This will allow you to learn about what it is like to work with each lender, which can tell you about who is easiest to work with and most responsive to your questions. Once you are ready to lock in an interest rate, that will be the lender that you use to secure your financing for the home.
Looking for more information about getting a first-time home buyer loan? Reach out to a lender in your area for their assistance.
