{"id":5427,"date":"2020-09-18T09:00:00","date_gmt":"2020-09-18T13:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/migonline.com\/blog\/?p=5427"},"modified":"2020-09-03T08:31:30","modified_gmt":"2020-09-03T12:31:30","slug":"the-pre-approval-process-and-why-it-matters","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/migonline.com\/blog\/2020\/09\/18\/the-pre-approval-process-and-why-it-matters\/","title":{"rendered":"The Pre-Approval Process and Why It Matters"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>It can take many months of looking to find a home you want to live in. When you find your dream home, it can be crushing to realize that you aren&#8217;t going to be able to secure a mortgage for the amount you need. Keep this disappointing situation from happening to you by getting pre-approved for a mortgage loan.<\/p>\n<p><strong>What Does it Mean to be Pre-Approved?\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>By visiting\u00a0a mortgage loan officer and having your finances reviewed and your credit report pulled,\u00a0you&#8217;re\u00a0essentially applying for a loan\u00a0with no commitment to accept the money. It costs you nothing but a bit of time to get pre-approved and can make your homebuying process easier.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>You know what you can afford.<\/strong> The pre-approval will be for a certain amount of money, so you know what range of homes to view.<\/li>\n<li><strong>You possess stronger negotiating power. <\/strong>Buyers are more likely to take you seriously when you&#8217;re pre-approved.<\/li>\n<li><strong>You look\u00a0more competitive. <\/strong>If you are pre-approved and the other buyers bidding on the home are not, there&#8217;s a good chance the sellers will find your offer more attractive.<\/li>\n<li><strong>You can move through the homebuying process faster.<\/strong> Once you&#8217;re pre-approved, you may be able to decrease the back and forth of negotiation and set a closing date faster.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Getting\u00a0pre-approved isn&#8217;t terribly difficult if you start out with the right information. Here are the items\u00a0you&#8217;ll need to get pre-approved for a home loan:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Credit report. <\/strong>The loan officer will pull this for you. Don&#8217;t worry if you have a few blemishes, as\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/migonline.com\/bad-credit\">bad credit homes<\/a> are available in some instances. However, if you see errors on your report, dispute them immediately.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Income data<\/strong>. You may need to bring W-2s, pay stubs, and tax returns as proof.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Valid form of identification<\/strong>. Use a photo ID like a driver&#8217;s license or a passport.\u00a0Make sure it&#8217;s not expired.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Employment verification<\/strong>. Current pay stubs may be enough,\u00a0or the loan officer may confirm with your employer.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Proof of any additional income<\/strong>. Adding alimony and freelance income may help you qualify for a larger loan.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Asset verification<\/strong>. Bring copies of your bank statements and all of your\u00a0retirement or 401(k) statements.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Sometimes borrowers are able to get pre-approved within a few minutes. Other times, if the loan officer must verify several items, it can take a bit longer. Once it&#8217;s ready, you will receive confirmation and the pre-approval will most likely be good for a period of 60 to 90 days.<\/p>\n<p>Taking the time to meet with a loan officer and\u00a0get pre-approved is a smart move if you&#8217;re on the home-buying path. Once you do it,\u00a0you can have peace of mind that the journey will be a bit easier, and you won&#8217;t be wasting your time looking at properties you can&#8217;t afford.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>It can take many months of looking to find a home you want to live in. When you find your dream home, it can be crushing to realize that you aren&#8217;t going to be able to secure a mortgage for the amount you need. Keep this disappointing situation from happening to you by getting pre-approved &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/migonline.com\/blog\/2020\/09\/18\/the-pre-approval-process-and-why-it-matters\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">The Pre-Approval Process and Why It Matters<\/span> <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5422,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[124],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5427","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-pre-approval"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/migonline.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5427","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/migonline.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/migonline.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/migonline.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/migonline.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5427"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/migonline.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5427\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5428,"href":"https:\/\/migonline.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5427\/revisions\/5428"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/migonline.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5422"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/migonline.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5427"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/migonline.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5427"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/migonline.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5427"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}