Buying a home is one of the most momentous, important, and misunderstood events in America. There’s a lot that goes into finding your dream home, and people generally don’t learn about these details until it’s time to buy their own home. By then, it’s easy to feel overwhelmed by all the resources and the process as a whole. However, you can make the mortgage process easier for yourself by knowing where to start. Once you take that first step, the rest have a way of falling into place.
How Do You Start a Mortgage Process?
You might think that you start the mortgage process by shopping around for a house and finding out what your ideal home costs. This isn’t actually where you should start, though, and you may set yourself up for disappointment if you do start here. Rather, you start the mortgage process by seeking preapproval from a qualified financial institution.
Step One: Preapproval
Preapproval is the key stage to start your journey toward homeownership off right. While it’s not always explicitly necessary, you could have a rocky, unpleasant experience without it. It’s likely you could head into home buying negotiations, reach a suitable agreement, and then find that you can’t afford the mortgage you thought you could. Even worse, a seller might dismiss you out of hand if you don’t have preapproval.
Thankfully, preapproval is fairly easy once you find the institution you want to seek preapproval from. Essentially, the lender or their representative will ask you a variety of questions pertaining to your assets, savings, employment, financial history, and your down payment. Once you give satisfactory answers to these questions, they will preapprove a certain sum for a mortgage. After completing preapproval, you’ll be well on your way to a smooth home-buying process.
After Preapproval
While preapproval makes things much easier for you since you know what you can spend, that’s not necessarily the end of things. The reason is that even after you shop around and find a home within your budget, you may run into trouble. It’s still possible for the lender to reject you once you come around to request the mortgage, and this can be enough to sink your home-buying ambitions. If you find yourself in this position, it can be like a bucket of cold water thrown in your face. So why do preapprovals end up rejected?
The reason is simply that your financial data from preapproval didn’t match what the lender found when they researched it. Preapproval is not a very rigorous process, and the lender will generally take your answers at face value. If you answer things incorrectly, if you forgot to include certain details, or if your financial situation changes even slightly for the worse, it can invalidate your preapproval.
In short, preapproval is the key to starting your mortgage process off successfully. Make sure that you’re diligent, accurate, and thorough when it comes to preapproval, and your home buying process should go smoothly.
Start Your Mortgage Process with Potempa Team
Potempa Team consists of some of the top real estate experts in Arizona. If you want a reliable, accurate preapproval that will set you up for a successful transition into homeownership, then look no further. Get in touch to learn more about how we can help you buy your first home.
