Why Pre-Approval Should Be Your First Step When Buying A Home In Gwinnett County and Metro Atlanta

Most home buyers start out by browsing homes for sale online to get an idea of what housing styles and neighborhoods they like. However, if you don’t know what you can afford, you may be looking out of your price range and wasting your time. You may also be looking below your price range and not getting the right home for you.
The reality is home buying does not begin with house hunting unless you have all cash and do not need a mortgage loan. The first thing you need to do is get your financing in place. Knowing your budget will give you the confidence to know if your dream home is within your reach.
Streamline Your House Hunting
Sellers want to see you are serious about buying their home. The primary way they look for this is to require prospective buyers be pre-qualified or pre-approved for a mortgage. Getting pre-approved often helps speed up the process once your offer has been accepted.
If you start off by getting a pre-approval, you can sort by price, identify the right neighborhoods, and find your dream home much faster.
Advantages of Pre-approval
Freddie Mac lays out the advantages of pre-approval in the 'My Home' section of their website.
“It’s highly recommended that you work with your lender to get pre-approved before you begin house hunting. Pre-approval will tell you how much home you can afford and can help you move faster, and with greater confidence, in competitive markets.”
Freddie Mac describes the 4 Cs that help determine the amount you will be qualified to borrow:

• Capacity: Your current and future ability to make your payments
• Capital or cash reserves: The money, savings and investments you have that can be sold quickly for cash
• Collateral: The home, or type of home, that you would like to purchase
• Credit: Your history of paying bills and other debts on time

Working With A Real Estate Professional
One of the many advantages of working with a local real estate professional is that many have relationships with lenders who will be able to help you with this process. Real estate professionals prefer to work with home buyers who have a pre-approval in hand.
When you are pre-approved the real estate agent can feel more confident the transaction isn’t likely to fall through. When a real estate professional knows what you want and what you can afford, they are able to do a better job of finding your dream home.
Less Stress With Pre-Approval
If you aren’t pre-approved, you’ll spend longer looking for homes. You most likely will not get the service of a real estate professional as most simply do not work with buyers who are not pre-approved. You may get turned down once you’re ready to make an offer.
All of this adds more time and stress to what should be a very exciting time in your life.
Bottom Line, skipping pre-approval can wreak havoc on your stress level.
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Find out if you qualify for Down Payment Assistance Now:

Blisss Life Realty will be hosting the “Stop Renting-Start Buying Home Buyer Series- Get Credit Ready to Buy Your Home and Down Payment Assistance” beginning Saturday, February 4 at 11:00 am. For more information or to register click here.
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