Getting your buyers prequalified should always be your first step.
Today I will talk about how to get pre-qualified for a loan. So this is a crucial stage in the process. Before you show those buyers even one house, ensure you’ve gone through the process to get them pre-qualified for the loan.
Why do you want to do that in advance? Because you don’t want to spend all your time showing houses and then find out they qualify for about two-thirds of what you were shopping for. It’s going to be a big waste of your time and their emotions because as they go through, they’re going to get emotionally attached to each of these little houses that you’re showing them. And when they want to make an offer, you’ll have to say, “No, I can’t do that because you can’t afford it.” So let’s talk about how to prequalify.
One of the things that you want to do is make sure you have a really good, solid lender partner that will have your back all the way through the transaction, has excellent communication skills, and keeps you in the loop.
The next thing you want to do is make sure your buyer knows that this will be an invasive process. They’re going to have to give up a lot of information that they would typically consider very personal, and they wouldn’t necessarily share it. They will be sharing things like bank statements and paystubs and W-2s and tax returns and all kinds of different stuff.
“Make sure that you’ve gone through the process to get them pre-qualified for the loan.”
A lot of documentation goes through the pipeline when you’re getting a loan set up to ensure that the buyer makes the money they say they make and they actually have the money in the bank that they say they have. That way, we don’t have any surprises when they move into that house, and they can afford it, and everybody’s happy.
So that’s why we want to get pre-qualified because we want to be house rich and personally rich as well. We don’t want to have somebody who is house rich and personally poor so that they have to put curtains up in the windows, but they can’t even afford curtains, so they’re using sheets. So make sure that you have a good, solid pre-qualification done on your buyers before you go shopping, and let them know how that process will work.
Remember, if you have any questions about prequalifications or the business of real estate in general, please don’t hesitate to reach out to me by phone or email. I would be happy to help you.
