H and I are “house hunting” (meaning we are looking around but under no pressure to buy). After a year of casting about, we find that we need to get pre-qualified in order to see one of the houses we MIGHT be interested in. Since it’s a long weekend we won’t get a pre-qual letter before Wednesday at best. Meanwhile, we are a bit on pins and needles to find out whether we can even SEE this potential house. (H thinks not, but I’m optimistic :)).) Does anyone here have experience with this process who could give us a general idea of where we stand?
To get pre qualified a mortgage Banker will pull your credit and get proof of income. Sounds like the homeowners have been burned before or are trying to minimize the looky loos.
We don’t know what price range you’re looking at, but it’s not uncommon with higher priced homes or any situation where they don’t want to be bothered by looky-loos, as eyamamom said. If you haven’t already, you can use an online calculator for a general idea what you might qualify for. Many real estate sites have a link or you can google. You can also pull your credit report, if you haven’t.
Are you working with a realtor or looking on your own? I can see why any sellers or their agent would ask to see a pre-qual from potential DIY house shoppers.
i can’t imagine turning away a potential buyer just because they are not prequalified.
However, in certain markets, this apparently is very common…like on the San Francisco Bay Area.
We’re definitely looking at a higher priced possibility relative to our area. We’ve been working with a Realtor, but this particular house is for sale by owner, so we have to abide by what they want. Our gross is in the range $180-200K but is complicated by the many rental properties and their many associated mortgages.
When I was looking in NYC, agents wouldn’t talk to us unless we had a pre-qualified letter. I remember there were few times I’ve had to ask my mortgage banker to update the letter over a weekend or when he was on vacation.