Are you planning on buying a home this spring? Spring is often one of the busiest home buying seasons. If you’re ready to find the perfect place to call home, you might experience a more competitive market than in previous years. Planning ahead and preparing in advance with a mortgage pre-approval can give you an advantage when you do find the perfect home.
Here are three home buying tips to help you prepare.
1. Prepare your documents ahead of time.
An easy way to start preparing for a mortgage is to start gathering the documents you’ll need during the mortgage process. The mortgage process requires documents like bank statements, photo identification, and paycheck stubs. Having these documents in advance will save you time by not needing to get them together during the process. For the full list of documents needed for a home loan through First Bank Mortgage, read “Documents you need for your mortgage application”.
2. Get a mortgage pre-approval before you start looking.
Finding the perfect home, but then needing to wait to see if you are approved for a loan to buy the home, can be stressful. Consider getting a mortgage pre-approval before you start looking. When you are pre-approved, this means you’ve been approved through a specific lender, like First Bank Mortgage, for a specific loan amount. It can help expedite the home buying process when you’ve found the home that you want to purchase. It also saves time by giving you a guideline as to what homes will fall within your budget. Expect your mortgage pre-approval to last anywhere between 60 to 90 days, due to things like changes to your income or credit history. If you don’t find the house you want to purchase in that time frame, you can contact First Bank Mortgage with updated information and request a new pre-approval letter.
3. Determine what you need and what you want in your new home.
Before you start looking at homes, determine what you both need in a house and what you want in a house. How many bedrooms will you need? How many bathrooms? Determine what your requirements are for a new house and determine what things will be an added benefit that you don’t necessarily need. For example, a swimming pool would be a nice addition, but is it something you really need or will want to maintain? What about a large lawn and the additional time and expense of lawn care? Will that fit into your budget? Figuring out what you need and what you want will help you save time by avoiding houses that won’t meet your requirements.
Planning ahead and being prepared with a mortgage pre-approval will help the home buying process go smoothly and give you an advantage over other home buyers. If you’re ready to purchase a new home, review our mortgage loans, and find a First Bank Home Loan Advisor near you to get started.