Mortgage Center for Spring, Tomball,Magnolia, Cypress, Northwest Houston and the Woodlands Texas

Mortgage questions to ask —

There is more to a home loan than the rate. Some questions you will want to consider. How long do I plan to stay in the house? How much are the costs of getting the loan? Will I be able to make the payments when I include all the monthly expenses? Is my credit good enough to get that attractive rate? Below are several resources to help you understand the loan process.

As of 2008 the Mortgage Rules have changed —

The rules have changed in the mortgage industry. The days of a real estate transaction being dependent upon the creativity of a loose lender are finished. Down payments are back again and FHA loans have had resurgence in popularity. With all of this in mind getting yourself pre-approved or at the least pre-qualified before you ever start looking is more important than ever. et documentation and credit reports are required on all loan types. Being pre-approved gives you an edge when you start looking for your home. If you get in to the situation where there is more than one offer on a home it is often the person who is further along in the loan process who will get the home. I have even had the situation where the other offer was a little more but my seller preferred the person who had a pre-approval.

What is a Pre-Qualification? —

A prequalification is simply a meeting between a loan officer and a customer to determine what the mortgage needs of the customer are. Income and assets are not verified. The credit report may or may not be pulled. The information is not submitted to an underwriter. The lender does not receive enough information to make a credit decision.

What is a Pre-Approval? —

Pre-approval includes a complete loan application. A credit report is pulled and asset and income are verified. The information is submitted to underwriters for "credit only" decision. Once you have been pre-approved your credit package can be used with any property. Final loan approval will be subject to the underwriter approving the property only. A pre-approval is normally good for 90 days. The borrower receives a written pre-approval letter. I personally think lenders are looking at this a little more conservatively than they use to with the current state of our mortgage industry. The products that lenders had last year, maybe even last week are no longer available to the consumer which makes getting pre-approved for your loan even more important than ever. Once you even think that you might be interested in purchasing a home you should call a lender and at the least get pre-qualified. Even if the news is not good by going through the process you will know what you need to start working on and you can make a game plan to get your credit in order.

More information about mortgages —