Getting Pre-Approved for a Home Loan in St Cloud, MN
I am noticing a lot of people who want to "put the carriage in front of the horse" recently. What I mean by this phrase is that there are many people who want to start looking at houses before the get pre-approved for a home purchase.
Getting pre-approved before you start looking at real estate is not only a good idea, it is something that most decent REALTORS mandate. Why? To be honest, we don't want to drive you all around town if a) you can't currently make a home purchase and/or b) we might be showing homes outside of your price range for a home purchase.
I can tell you that with the "credit crunch" making the whole real estate world topsy-turvy, there are a lot of good people that I could have gotten into homes a couple of years ago who can no longer purchase. Most of the time it comes with the fact that it seems the vast majority of first time home buyers haven't saved enough money to cover even the closing costs for their new home purchase. With most banks requiring 5% down for conventional loans and 3% down for FHA financing, this is just too much money for people who have none saved.
Don't get me wrong, I think one of the main reasons for the current state of the real estate market is that too many people have nothing at stake in their homes. It's not to hard to understand why a person is willing to walk away from a home if they have none of their own money invested in it. But if you make them have $10,000 or so at stake, all of a sudden they are willing to try a little harder to make their payments. This isn't the only player in the foreclosure world and current real estate market, but it is a good piece of the puzzle.
If you don't want to end up like so many others and potentially lose your home to foreclosure, buy one that you can afford. The best way to know what you can afford is to have a reputable lending institution give you a good pre-approval. If you don't have someone in mind, give me a call or e-mail and I will get you in touch with some of the great lenders in the St Cloud area. Do this before you contact a real estate professional to have them show you homes. You can even ask the lender if they have some good real estate agents that they have worked with in the past. Or better yet, ask them what they think about me:).
Jason Tangen, GRI - Real Estate Broker Associate with Edina Realty in St Cloud MN
http://jasontangen.edinarealty.com - Search for open houses in St Cloud, MN and surrounding areas.
www.StCloudEdinaRealty.com - Home of the e-Market Analysis (Free home value estimator)
