Get Pre-Approved, or Risk Losing!

So last week I sat through a presentation from Laura Lafayette, CEO of the Richmond Association of REALTORS which talked about the trends happening in Richmond and how we are growing as a city. Home purchases are up in general which is fantastic! It's really great news, but it's a little scary for potential home buyers because about 99% of asking price is being met.

What does that mean for our buyers? When you look for a home, you need to have your pre-approval letter! Why? If you happen to look at a house that you fall in love with, you have to be able to put in an offer right away. Even though our approval process is fairly quick, we can't really stop someone from putting in an offer before you if they are pre-approved.

This keeps happening to our buyers and we hate having to give them the bad news on their home being sold because they didn't talk to a mortgage lender first. Laura shared with us that rates may go up this year, which means that more buyers will try to buy homes before they go up. It's more competition to our buyers so preparation is key.

So what happens in the pre-approval process? We get some basic information from you, like driver's license, copy of W2's, etc. We figure out your debt to income ratio and know about how much home you can afford. Why is this important? Getting your finances straight is a crucial part of the approval process, we need to know that your current lifestyle won't suffer with a mortgage payment even though a lot of the times we can lower your current monthly expenses.

Speak to a mortgage professional, we know it can be intimidating but it doesn't have to be. Even if you find out that you're not ready to buy now, we can make sure that we get you in the right path so you can in the near future!

I'll leave you with one closing note, if you're even thinking of looking at houses, please don't get your hopes up by going around and looking at them without a pre-approval letter. You'll end up finding something that you really love just to find out someone was better prepared than you and they'll snatch it up from under you!