Best place to get preapproval/accurate cost estimates?

[jaylea]

There are so many competing sites and we haven’t bought in 13 years.

A house in our neighborhood that is everything we dream of popped up for sale. It’s an incredibly tight market - one of the fastest growing in the country the past couple of years.

We own a home but I am concerned a contingency wouldn’t get a look. So I am thinking of pulling some assets to put down a larger down payment, then list our house if we go under contract and put proceeds toward the principal when we sell. We will have no problem selling fast.

But I want a really accurate view of costs so I know our max offer price. It’s going to be a bidding war, so H and I want to be very clear. The pre approval we got online is kind of ridiculous in terms of what it approved us for, so it’s making me want a second, clearer picture.

Any recommendations?

I don’t want to bother with this market but this house is everything we want.

[lessel]

Do you have a realtor? I feel like in this situation I'd want my realtor's rec for a lender they work with and trust. I've had success with online for refi, but I feel like you want to be able to workshop stuff with a person more than some of those places seem to offer.

Also, have you looked into a bridge loan? We did that when we had to buy in a competitive market a couple years back. It worked great and I think only ended up costing like $400-600 when all was said and done.

[jaylea]

Sept 12, 2022 9:47:41 GMT -5 lessel said:

Do you have a realtor? I feel like in this situation I'd want my realtor's rec for a lender they work with and trust. I've had success with online for refi, but I feel like you want to be able to workshop stuff with a person more than some of those places seem to offer.

Also, have you looked into a bridge loan? We did that when we had to buy in a competitive market a couple years back. It worked great and I think only ended up costing like $400-600 when all was said and done.

We do have a realtor, I will ask him. Not familiar with a bridge loan - I’ll look into that too.

[Susie]

I'll be honest:  if the house is already on the market, the market is as hot as you indicate, and you don't already have your preapproval, your relationship with a realtor, and your plan for contingencies/sale your own home, this one may pass you by while you figure it all out.  

It happened to us, we were toying with the idea of moving in early January 2021.  Then a house came on the market that I swooned over.  It was what finally pushed me to decide yes, I really want to move.  It was in our budget range and it was all the things I wanted.  Unfortunately, we hadn't yet started working with a realtor or a mortgage lender, and it went under contract before we could hope to pull all of it together to make a serious offer.

The good news is that 2 months later another house a few doors down on the same side of the same street went on the market, and by then we were ready.  The interior finishes were less to my liking, but they were dated enough for me to update without feeling bad, and the lot is nicer.  And we live here now!

All of that said, preapprovals are notoriously high relative to what would actually be a good idea to spend on a house.  Remember that the bank DGAF if you're house poor when all is said and done, all they care is that you are able to make the payments.  I don't know that a 2nd preapproval is really going to change that, it's more that you need to think about what you want to spend, and looking at prevailing interest rates.  Our realtor was most helpful with figuring out timing, strategies, etc. for purchase and sale.

Also remember that you don't need to actually borrow from the lender that does your preapproval.  We did our preapproval with the credit union that, at the time, held the mortgage on our old house, and that's the preapproval letter we provided with our offer.  Since it is a local credit union with generally pretty stringent lending standards (because they keep their loans in house), it strengthened our offer.  But by the time we went under contract, they no longer had the most competitive rates.  So I worked with another lender and went straight to the approval process (skipping preapproval) after we got in contract, and ultimately financed with them.  

[jaylea]

Sept 12, 2022 10:04:12 GMT -5 Susie said:

I'll be honest:  if the house is already on the market, the market is as hot as you indicate, and you don't already have your preapproval, your relationship with a realtor, and your plan for contingencies/sale your own home, this one may pass you by while you figure it all out.  

It happened to us, we were toying with the idea of moving in early January 2021.  Then a house came on the market that I swooned over.  It was what finally pushed me to decide yes, I really want to move.  It was in our budget range and it was all the things I wanted.  Unfortunately, we hadn't yet started working with a realtor or a mortgage lender, and it went under contract before we could hope to pull all of it together to make a serious offer.

The good news is that 2 months later another house a few doors down on the same side of the same street went on the market, and by then we were ready.  The interior finishes were less to my liking, but they were dated enough for me to update without feeling bad, and the lot is nicer.  And we live here now!

All of that said, preapprovals are notoriously high relative to what would actually be a good idea to spend on a house.  Remember that the bank DGAF if you're house poor when all is said and done, all they care is that you are able to make the payments.  I don't know that a 2nd preapproval is really going to change that, it's more that you need to think about what you want to spend, and looking at prevailing interest rates.  Our realtor was most helpful with figuring out timing, strategies, etc. for purchase and sale.

Also remember that you don't need to actually borrow from the lender that does your preapproval.  We did our preapproval with the credit union that, at the time, held the mortgage on our old house, and that's the preapproval letter we provided with our offer.  Since it is a local credit union with generally pretty stringent lending standards (because they keep their loans in house), it strengthened our offer.  But by the time we went under contract, they no longer had the most competitive rates.  So I worked with another lender and went straight to the approval process (skipping preapproval) after we got in contract, and ultimately financed with them.  

We have a preapproval, a realtor, a plan and an appt to see it when it goes live this week.

I just want to firm up some numbers before then.

[Pom]

Good luck!

[dancingirl21]

jaylea, did you end up seeing the house?

[jaylea]

Sept 21, 2022 14:18:11 GMT -5 dancingirl21 said:

jaylea, did you end up seeing the house?

We did! The pictures way oversold the house and we didn’t put in an offer. It is a money pit, but could be beautiful.

That said, it lit a fire under us to get everything in order so we are ready for the next one.