Pittsburgh Real Estate Podcast with Gina Giampietro - Make Sure You Work With a Lender Before Starting Your Home Search

Make Sure You Work With a Lender Before Starting Your Home Search

04/25/17 • -1 min

Pittsburgh Real Estate Podcast with Gina Giampietro

Lately, I’ve talked to a number of buyers who think they can skip the pre-approval before they start looking at homes. There are a number of reasons why this is a mistake!

Want to sell your home? Get a FREE home value report

Want to buy a home? Search all homes for sale

I get emails and calls on a daily basis from people who want to look at homes but don’t want to get pre-approved. However, getting pre-approved is a very important part of buying a home.

First of all, don’t forget that we are in a seller’s market right now. If you find a home and there are multiple offers on it already and you haven’t talked to a lender yet, then you can’t make an offer. Sellers in this market want to make sure that potential buyers have been pre-approved and are prepared to make a purchase.

Pre-approvals also help you make sure that you are in your price range. Just because you read an article online that says interest rates are at a certain level doesn’t mean that’s the rate you would get with a 10-year loan, 15-year loan, or 30-year loan. Online articles also tend to skip overpaying a mortgage insurance premium.

When a lender pulls your credit, they’ll talk to you about your payments, how much money you can put down, and what kind of house you can afford. A...

Lately, I’ve talked to a number of buyers who think they can skip the pre-approval before they start looking at homes. There are a number of reasons why this is a mistake!

Want to sell your home? Get a FREE home value report

Want to buy a home? Search all homes for sale

I get emails and calls on a daily basis from people who want to look at homes but don’t want to get pre-approved. However, getting pre-approved is a very important part of buying a home.

When a lender pulls your credit, they’ll talk to you about your payments, how much money you can put down, and what kind of house you can afford. A...

Previous Episode

The Reality of Purchasing a Rehab Home

Rehabbing a home might seem like a breeze on HGTV, but there are a few things that you need to know about purchasing a rehab property.

Want to sell your home? Get a FREE home value report

Want to buy a home? Search all homes for sale

A lot of people watch HGTV and decide that they want to do a rehab and create the home of their dreams. Unfortunately, many people do not know how to actually buy a rehab property.

Most people will say to me, “I was approved for $100,000 and the house is only $50,000, so I will have plenty left over to fix up the property.” When you get pre-approved for a mortgage, that is not the same loan that you need for a rehab property. You need to go after a rehab loan.

Let’s say you like the floor plan of a home but you don’t like the kitchens or bathrooms so you want to redo the property. That’s great! You will probably end up with a great deal and have a lot of equity at the end.

However, let’s say that the house is $100,000 and sitting in a $140,000 neighborhood. In that case, the house is already priced for the condition of the home. You can get a $2,000 or $3,000 rehab loan to get the home where you want it to be, but the seller will not sell you the home at $50,000 or $60,000 because they have already discounted the property according to its condition. You really need to consider what you are looking at and the home prices in the neighborhood.

O...