Your First Step To Your New Portland Property: Loan Pre-Approval

Why get pre-approved first?

• You ensure you're making the most of your time--looking at properties you can afford.
  
• You want your offer to be accepted!  Portland sellers and listing agents want to see a pre-approval letter with your submitted offer--not wait for it.  With the changes in the lending industry of late, the pre-approval letter with the offer is even more crucial than ever.  Don't wait until you find your dream home--(that just came on the market at a competitive price)--to go through the pre-approval process with your loan officer.

Is it the same thing to be "pre-qualified" for a loan as it is to being "pre-approved" for a loan?

Answer: No. 

Pre-qualification is the process of determining the amount of a loan you can "qualify" for, based on your income, assets, liabilities, and credit.  Pre-qualification can be useful for determining what property price range you can search in.

Pre-approval, on the other hand, takes much of the risk out of the sale/purchase transaction since the lender has already made the commitment to loan the money required.  It is the process of providing a loan commitment by a lender for an "approved" amount, with income, assets, liabilities, and credit-worthiness having been verified.

Curious about what you might pre-qualify for?
Play around with affordibility and rent vs. own calculators. Click here

Want to take the next step and get pre-approved?  Click here