Two big changes have happened since the real estate bust. Three out of ten Americans don’t qualify for a mortgage. And lenders are not giving out many Pre-Approval letters.
It has been traditional for buyers of homes to get
themselves “Pre-Qualified” when they are putting an offer in to purchase a home
and adding a mortgage contingency clause.
"Pre-Qualified" letters are relatively easy to get from mortgage lenders. They don’t mean
much; just that the lender has run the numbers the potential borrower has given
to him and, without verifying the data, calculated how large a mortgage the
borrower should be able to get.
On the other hand, I ask for
a potential buyer to present a “Pre-Approval" letter. This indicates his lender has checked out
all the income, assets and other data the borrower has given to him and has pre-approved the loan. It gives my seller a comfortable feeling that, if he accepts an
offer with a Mortgage Contingency Clause and the buyer provides a Pre-Approval letter, then the
buyer should be able to get a mortgage and buy the home.
Times have changed! Here are two
good articles from FloridaRealtors.org. One is about credit scores and
qualifying for a mortgage and the other about the slow death of Pre-Approval
letters:
Getting a Mortgage
http://bit.ly/18Yajtj
Getting a Pre-Approval
Letter
http://bit.ly/1aiWa8v
