Pre-approval questions

We weren't planning on officially beginning our house hunt for another several months but recently here and there I will see something inexpensive that looks interesting and doable now.

Is there any harm in getting pre-approved now so that we can look at a home on occasion? How long is a pre-approval "good" for? Will it harm us in any way in 3-6 months when we are officially ready to begin the process?

I remember reading here recently a suggestion to go anywhere for the pre-approval, as you don't really need to shop around until you're ready to get a mortgage.
I also went to Long Island Housing Partnership about a year ago and spoke to them about some of the mortgage products for first-time home buyers. If we want to go through them for a mortgage, do we have to get pre-approved through them, or can we do that when we're really ready?

thanks....the questions have offically begun!

Re: Pre-approval questions

A pre-approval generally lasts about 90 days - and you can get them from anyone. It won't hurt you at all. But, if you aren't ready to seriously look, I'd wait on the pre-approval. You can go to as many open houses you want without a pre-approval. It's when you start making appointments with a realtor - that's when I think you should have the pre-approval. That's JMO though.

Re: Pre-approval questions

The house we're interested in now is not an open house..I just want to go see it..hence my dilemma!

Someone else on this board said that I really don't have to get pre-approved until we're serious, even to go looking, which I hadn't heard before. So it seems that there are no true "rules" at this point about whether we get pre-approved or not, it's just a matter of when we're ready or if we hit a roadblock with a seller or seller's agent not wanting to show us a house b/c of this?

Re: Pre-approval questions

We were asked if we were pre-approved when we started working with a realtor. Getting pre-approved is really a way to find out how much house you can afford - what the bank is willing to lend you. If you are interested in a house, I would go to bankrate.com and use their "How much house can I afford" calculator and see if it's in your ballpark.
When we made the offer on our house and it was accepted, we had to fax the other RE agent our pre-approval letter.

Message edited 1/18/2008 8:35:07 AM.

Re: Pre-approval questions

We went to open houses and also made appts. with realtors without our formal preapproval. Once we knew we wanted to make an offer, we contacted Long Island Housing Partnership again. I met with Leticia last year so I called her and just sent her in a few updated things. I had my preapproval within 24 hours and am now working with Chase on my mortgage.

So you can definitely make appts. to see houses without being preapproved. If you know you want to make an offer on a house, just call up LIHP and they'll help you.

Hope this helps.

Re: Pre-approval questions

I had the same dilema as you! We weren't "offically" looking but we went to a bunch of open houses and there was one house that we really liked and wanted to see again. We decided to go w/o the pre-approval. Turns out we didn't like the house as much as we thought. But it doesn't hurt to check out a house here or there w/o the pre-approval, as long as you fully understand how much you can afford.

Now we are working with a RE agent and she asked us on the first day if we had a pre-approval. But she plans to show us all the houses we want to see. So I can understand that she doesn't want to waste her time if we aren't pre-approved yet.

The pre-approval will only tell you the amount the bank will authorize for a mortgage. I wouldn't suggest you use that amount as the amount you can afford. They pull your credit for a pre-approval so keep that in mind. ANd they usually are only good for a few months so I would hold off on the pre-approval until you are serious. JMO.

Re: Pre-approval questions

You always want to sit down and think about what you can afford no matter what the pre-approval says. Banks work on a debt-to-income formula. I always recommend sitting down and figuring out what you can afford based on your current bills and your anticipated bills. Remember with a house you have to pay gas, electricity, phone, cable, etc., etc, etc.

Re: Pre-approval questions

Some realtors want a pre-qaul to make sure your not wasteing there time say you become intrested in a house...

you mention that house you like isn't open house? is it on the market? are you working with a realtor or is it forsalebyowner?

Do you plan on useing a broker or going to a bank? Like the above poster said, 2-3 months seems to be how long they are good for ...i would do it a couple of weeks before you start

Re: Pre-approval questions

Thank you everyone. Your answers helped a LOT. For some reason I had it in my head that no sellers or sellers realtor's would be interested in you looking at a home if you weren't already pre-approved, so I was basing everything on that, & on the need to get pre-approved in a huge hurry if I wanted to look at any house.

Just to clarify, I'm not confused about how much of a home we can afford. Just the timing of the process.

And you can all start eagerly awaiting my upcoming questions which will be equally confusing and ill-informed