Get Pre-Qualified To Save Your Time.
Home buying can be an exciting time! In Columbia, MO, home buying is on a slow recovery path relative to the last few years. Search “realtor Boone county, mo” on Google Maps and you’ll now get almost 3,000 listings for people wanting to help you buy a home. Having your plan in place is important to keeping the potential stress level down.
Getting pre-qualified for a home loan should be one of your first steps in your home adventure.
Yes, it’s no surprise that reading a series of home buying articles on a bank’s website is going to recommend investigating a home loan early in the process. But, it’s a reality of the shopping experience. Knowing what size of home loan you’ll get approved for is a huge factor in determining the house you end up buying. It can save you countless hours of open houses and discussions. The pre-qualified process will provide you with two big things:
First, you’ll know what kind of loan you can get, and get a good estimate of how much mortgage payments will be. This is the big “reality check.” Knowing these figures allows you to understand how much money you will need to set aside each month to pay for your house. The pre-qualified process will be using some assumptions about property taxes and escrow accounts. But, it’s usually pretty close to the actual amount you’ll pay.
Second, you should get a free copy of your credit report during the process. This can help you understand if you should focus on improving your credit score to go after a better loan rate later on. It could also serve as inspiring if you get a home now, and look to refinance down the road using an improved credit score.
Protect your credit rating during the loan application process. The general advice is to keep making your normal credit card and loan payments. Don’t suddenly apply for more credit cards or other loans. Try to keep everything the same during the loan application process.
You should know, upfront, that the loan process will include many requests for all kinds of financial information from pay stubs to credit card statements.
After you understand how much of a house you can afford, you can focus next steps like creating your wish list for your new home, doing research and arranging to visit homes. This is where you can have a lot of fun dreaming about a new place!
We’d like to help you with your home buying in Columbia, MO and surrounding areas. We help people with buying homes every day. Please contact us if we can be of any service. As the oldest independent community bank in Missouri, The Callaway Bank combines old-fashioned values like fairness, respect and honesty with modern banking products and services. Our customers have been our greatest assets since 1857.
The Callaway Bank is an Equal Opportunity Lender.