Happy Wednesday! I hope you are doing well and staying safe. For this week’s video I want to discuss inventory and proper steps to win a home in this market. We are having a lot of people find their dream home before they are pre-approved and are not able to make a competitive offer on the home. Please see below for the steps to follow in this market and watch my video for more details.
Get a pre-approval letter from a local lender before you start looking at homes. This will mean taking a complete application so they can pull your credit and sending them all of your required documents. The application typically takes 15 minutes and once you send your documents, we can have you pre-approved within 48 hours. (NOTE: if you are self-employed or have a complicated scenario this may take longer.)
- In order to do a pre-approval, we need to get your documents during the week so we can review with underwriting and underwriters don’t work over the weekend. So, if you are looking at homes over the weekend you need to get your documents in by Weds at the latest.
Determine your maximum payment and cash to close you are comfortable with. Once we know this number, we can let you know your max purchase price. This is very important in this market because most homes get bid above listing price and you need to know the max you can bid.
•Once you know our maximum purchase price you need to let your realtor know to show you homes that are $25k - $50k below that price so you can bid up if needed.
•Once you do all of those things you will be in a position to make a competitive offer, know your max amount and be able to do a shorter close date with shorter contingencies.