A great place to start if you’re looking at real estate in Oxford MS.

So you have saved enough for a down payment and decided now is the time to buy your dream house or condo. At this point, if you’re like most people, your first impulse is to jump onto the World Wide Web and begin searching for suitable properties in the neighborhoods of your choice, and to pick up the phone and call your real estate agent to go see them. Just make sure you aren’t skipping a very important step!

The home buying process has changed over the years and chances are you don’t buy a home extremely often so the process may even be different compared to the last time you bought a home. In the optimized world we live in, where every process has become more efficient, how can something as crucial as buying a house be left to the age old process of – finding a house of your choice, making an offer, applying to a creditor for a mortgage, and waiting for the loan to get approved. Although there is nothing wrong in this process if the bank approves your loan and you go on to buy the house of your choice. But say there was a denial of mortgage by the lender. This can result in a huge let down for everyone, especially you.

Pre-Qualifying Prevents Heartache Down The Road

Pre-qualifying for a mortgage is a solution that gives you a lot more confidence and eliminates the fear that for some reason you aren’t able to qualify for a loan. Even if you think it won’t be ANY problem getting pre-qualified, you may be surprised since the banks have their own criteria that has to be met. For first-time home buyers, pre-qualifying might sound like a complicated process to go through, but in reality it can be as simple as making a phone call or stopping in your bank and can usually happen within a very short period of time.

Once you are pre-qualified, you know the price range and terms of what you will be able to afford, and what your monthly payments are going to be like. This saves you a lot of time as you can filter out unaffordable properties, or otherwise those you aren’t approved to buy, right from the start. The convenience that pre-qualifying brings to everyone involved in the transaction – the buyer, seller, real-estate agent, has ensured that now it is a very important aspect of the home buying process.

Most people dislike uncertainty in any kind of monetary transaction. Real estate transactions are no different: a buyer who is pre-qualified can often times get priority over someone who isn’t from most informed sellers.

Complicated Process?

To begin the process of pre-qualifying to purchase a home, you’ll simply need to call or visit a bank or lender’s office. You can also go to an online resource like Quicken Loans, Lending Tree, etc. They will ask you for some information, such as details about your income, assets, debt, etc. Based on the information you provide, the lender will provide you with a copy of the maximum loan amount they will make available to you, along with any pertinent additional terms and conditions. Some large institutional lenders have also started pre-qualifying services online. Moreover, many of the lenders don’t charge any fees for pre-qualifying service, because they want your business if you do qualify and finance your home through them!

Two common misconceptions among first time home buyers regarding pre-qualifying is that they would need to pay for the service and that pre-qualifying means making a commitment to the lender. Actually, most lenders throughout the U.S. offer their pre-qualifying service for free and just by getting pre-qualified by a particular lender doesn’t mean you are obligated to them, you can choose any lender of your choice once you have decided to apply for the mortgage.

As you can tell, pre-qualifying for your financing is a very important step, and one that should take place before you start looking at houses or condos that you might later discover you do not qualify for financing to purchase. Doing so can prevent a lot of grief and save you from heartache down the road. By pre-qualifying, you will be able to pinpoint the types as well as the price range of properties you want to begin looking at. Speak to your lender or financial expert to learn more and to begin the process of pre-qualifying for a mortgage, so that you can then proceed with assurance into looking for a home or condo that’s most suitable for you!