Isn’t it so annoying
when you call a Real Estate Agent and ask to see a home you’ve seen online and the first thing they ask you is, “Have you been pre-approved with a mortgage lender?” It turns out, there are several reasons why pre-approval is so important. Let’s break it down in digestible pieces. Selfishly, the first reason is for the benefit of your Realtor®. To many it seems that we spend our days driving around, showing beautiful homes to anyone who asks. This couldn’t be further from the truth. We actually run our business much like any other professional with loads of time in the office, doing research and mountains of paperwork, creating and executing marketing strategies, and doing everything we can think of to educate our buyers and sellers in the most efficient way. Getting a pre-approval letter from a lender lets us know that we’re spending our precious time with ready, willing and ABLE home buyers. There’s nothing wrong with wanting to look at homes out of pure curiosity, but that’s what open houses are for. Check FaceBook, Zillow, or Craigslist for upcoming open houses that you can go walk through. Snag some free treats, decorating ideas, see what homes are like in different neighborhoods, and chat up the agent on duty - trust me, most of us LIKE to talk! However, if you’re serious about buying, do us a quick favor and spend 5 minutes with a mortgage lender so we know you’re good to go. The second reason is for you, the buyer. I can’t imagine anything more frustrating that seeing a home that you’re absolutely in love with, you’re ready to make an offer, and then a lender tells you you need to be looking in a range about $30,000 less. Unless you’re looking at homes in the $1.5m range, asking $30,000 less on a home just to match your budget is not likely to go in your favor. How amazing would it feel to walk into the home of your dreams knowing without a doubt that you can afford to buy it? That’s genuinely our aim for you. The third reason is for the seller. You may be wondering why you should be concerned about what the seller thinks, but let’s be logical about this. The seller could LITERALLY hold the keys to your ideal home in their hands. About 50% of the time the seller still lives in the home you’re wanting to walk through, which means your real estate agent will be unlocking the door to someone else’s most private and intimate space - their home. And consider that we’re also displacing the seller/family for a range of 30-60 minutes while we do our walk-through. Regardless if the home is vacant or occupied, Hayli Cagle & Associates makes a promise to our sellers that we will only show their property to people who are able to purchase it. This cuts down on unnecessary traffic through someone else’s home, which we just think is considerate and in good taste. As licensed agents, we get phone calls like this all the time: Client: Hey, I was driving by 321 Main Street and I wanted to call and see if I could schedule an appointment for my wife/husband and I to see it. Agent: Awesome! I’d love to schedule that for you. Who’s your mortgage lender? Client: Well, we’re not completely sure yet if we want to move. But if we see the right home, it may convince us to put our home on the market. We get it! I promise, we do! Here’s the major flaw in this thinking. If we do happen to show you your dream home, we couldn’t even put in an offer contingent on selling your home without a pre-approval and without proving that your home is being marketed for sale. Truthfully most sellers won’t even look at a contingent offer unless your home is already under contract. The chances of this exact home still being available after we get yours on the market and get it under contract are extremely slim. Remember: We don’t want to waste our time, we definitely don’t want to waste your time, and we have a duty to protect sellers, whether they’re our sellers or not. There’s also a safety factor that comes into play, but that’s a whole separate story for another day! If you’d like to purchase a home (and we highly encourage it!), we have a list of local lenders who are ready to talk to you. The pre-approval process is minimally invasive and who are we kidding - if you’re going to buy a home, you’ll need that pre-approval eventually, whether it’s today, a week from today, or 3 months from today. Call Amanda, Mary, or Kelly today for your personal referral to a local lender or click the "I WANT TO BUY A HOME" button below so we know you’re interested in looking at homes. Happy House Hunting! |