I'm Going to Make an Offer to Buy a Home Soon. Here's What I Did First

I will soon be making an offer to buy a new home. But, before I actually put in the offer paperwork, there's an important step I took first. I wanted to make sure I was ready to move forward financially and that I could maximize my chances of getting my offer approved, so taking care of this task was vital to me. 

This was the one big thing I did before making an offer

Before I moved forward with making an offer to buy a house, I shopped around for a mortgage  and got pre-approved by a mortgage lender.

This was a lot of hassle for me because I am self-employed, so I'm not eligible to get a quick automated pre-approval as many people are after providing some pay stubs and having a credit check done. I had to send in a ton of documents, including business and personal tax returns.

But despite the time that it took to get rates from different lenders and to actually get pre-approval, it was worth the effort for me. And, in fact, I went through this process at the beginning of my home-buying journey even before I had found a house to buy. I did this because I know that pre-approval letters often expire about 30 to 60 days after they are issued, so I would have time before my approval expired to find a home that I liked and make an offer. 

Here's why pre-approval is so important

There were a few really important reasons why I pursued the process of getting pre-approved for a mortgage loan, even before I had found a property I wanted and well before I was ready to make an offer.

For one thing, some of the houses I wanted to go see required pre-approval. I would not have been allowed to view them if I didn't have a letter from a mortgage lender saying I had the funds to buy them. This would have been really annoying, as I wanted to make sure I took a look at every house I might potentially want to buy in my chosen neighborhood. 

More importantly, I know there is a lot of competition for houses in the neighborhood where I want to live. And there aren't many houses coming onto the market. When I found one, I wanted to be ready to put in the strongest offer possible right away, which would mean I had to include proof of pre-approval with my offer.

Now, I'm at the point where I'm putting in the offer and moving forward with the buying process. So, my pre-approval letter will come in handy to submit with my offer. I don't have the added stress of trying to find a lender quickly, submit my many documents, and hope that I can get my offer in on time. 

If you're looking to buy a home, you should make sure to get pre-approval early in the process, too. This can help you see what you can afford and what rate you'll pay, and also ensure you're ready to jump on making an offer when a house you like comes along.