Why get pre-approved 6 months out?

Fair question. Here’s the honest answer.

Preapproval isn’t about being ready to buy tomorrow. It’s about knowing your real number before you fall in love with a house you can’t afford, or even worse, one you can afford and didn’t realize it.

Vet the lender now.

Here’s what that 15 minute conversation with a lender actually gets you:

Your real number. Not the number you think you qualify for.
DTI, credit, income docs; I’ve seen buyers who thought they were good for $1.2M come back at $950K. Better to know that now than at the offer table.

Time to fix what’s off. Credit blip, debt ratio, documentation gap; all fixable with 3-6 months. Zero fixable with 10 days to close.

A real shot at rate strategy. Lock timing, float downs, buydowns; worth working through when you’re not under the gun. And you will be under the gun. Both sets of parents are going to be in your ear about cost, price, inspections, every decision you make (because they know everything, after all they bought a home in 2007) all while you’re already stressed buying the biggest purchase of your life. The last thing you need on top of that is scrambling for a lender too.

Vet the lender now.

Here’s why this matters more than it looks like it does:
House lists Thursday, priced right, in a hot pocket. Primo agents get their buyers in that night, before the Saturday open house. Preapproved buyer submits Saturday morning with proof of funds attached with a clean offer, no financing drama. Saturday at the open house you realize, ‘dammit we love this one, how do I get pre approved?”

So you submit Monday because you’ve been scrambling to get a lender on the phone. Seller’s already got three offers in hand. You’re not just late – you’re the weakest paper in the stack, so even matching price gets you passed over, or forces you to escalate $20-30K over ask just to look serious. You didn’t lose the house. You actually did win it, but at a worse basis than you modeled six months ago.

Vet the lender now.

Or this one: buyer assumes their credit’s fine, skips preapproval, keeps browsing. Five months in they finally get preapproved and find a forgotten collections item knocked 40 points off their score. In month 1, that’s a 2 month runway to fix it. In month 5, it’s a rate they’re stuck with, real money, tens of thousands over the life of the loan because there’s no time left to wait out a repair cycle.

Vet the lender now.

And the quiet one: no preapproval means no showings on anything that moves fast. Over 6 months, that’s not one missed house; it’s every house that moved fast. And the houses that moved fast ARE THE ONES YOU WANT. You only ever see what’s left: the slow, overpriced, or flawed inventory that sat long enough for you to catch up to it. Then you start thinking there’s nothing good out there, when the truth is you were never in the hunt for the good ones.

There’s always plenty of time to buy the tired ones. You want the ones when your guy says “I know it’s a cold rainy Tuesday night and you want to be in your jammies watching Modern Family, but we have to go see this one TONIGHT. Because it won’t be available by the weekend.

I hope you’re working with an agent that talks to you like that by the way.

Vet the lender now.

And here’s the part I won’t sugarcoat: I’m not taking you out to look at houses without a pre approval.

Not to tie you to me, not to be a pain in your ass about it. If I had a nickel for every time I heard “I’ll get it when I need it” just please, stop. I’ve watched that sentence cost people the house numerous times.

I can’t do it any other way. Only so many hours in a week, and I spend them on buyers who are ready to move.

Let me know when you’re ready. If you’re not pre apped, you’re not ready.

To be clear, I will take you out without a pre approval.

Once.

Then we are gonna have a come to god conversation.

You may find someone that works differently. But not this fat kid.

Tough talk from someone who only wants you to win what you want.

Vet the lender now.

Peace