If you are looking to purchase a home you would be wise to get prequalified before you start seriously house hunting. Prequalifying will alert you to how much home you can afford and what types of loans you can expect to receive. A mortgage broker should be able to process your information and provide you with prequalification within 24 hours.

For the majority of home shoppers, this prequalification actually determines the price range of homes they will focus on with their buyers‘ agents. What is more, such a prequalification protects consumers from bidding for a house only to be disregarded because they lack a lender letter stating that this bidder is a serious contender and considered creditworthy by a lender.

Banks see this as potential debt you could incur down the road and it may affect how much of a home loan they will offer you. You will also want to review your credit report for any errors. 3 out of 4 credit reports contain mistakes. If you find errors on your report, notify the credit reporting agency immediately. By law, they must remove any inaccurate information that appears on your report, but it could take upwards of 30 days.

Moreover, some lenders may not offer the kinds of loans a consumer might find more profitable and which, in the long run, might allow her or him to buy more house for the money. This is especially true for borrowers who would like to buy more home at the onset than they have money for in the long run, but – because of future business growth – anticipate being able to afford the actual house payments in the future. Such loan products may include adjustable rate mortgages, balloon payments, and also low interest or interest only loans that for brief periods of time offer a set of payments easy on the pocketbook. In some cases there are even alternative means of financing that only lenders truly know about and can set up for their clients.

What most potential buyers are not aware of is that the big banks no longer prequalify their clients, They prefer to have you search for a home, fall in love with it and then let you down once you sign the agreement of purchase and sale by telling you that the home is out of the price range that you can qualify for. This would then leave you, the client, to begin your search for a new mortgage again. This is not the case with mortgage agents, mortgage agents believe in full disclosure with their clients and would rather their client be armed with relevant facts prior to their home buying search. After all, isn’t a home the largest purchase that you’ll make in your life? Wouldn’t you rather it progress as smoothly as possible? I know I would!

Learn more about Obama Mortgage Relief Plan Qualifications.