You have made the decision that you´ve had it with cold winters and shoveling snow and icy roads and you want to live in the beautiful Sarasota area. First of all, congratulations for picking such a wonderful warm and sunny place to call home. There is a reason why Florida´s population continues to grow every year. It´s a wonderful place to live with soft breezes, lapping waves and incredible beaches. But now that you´ve decided that you want to call Sarasota home, what do you do now?
A good first step is trying to figure out exactly what kind of home you want and what you can afford. A good way to map out this step is to try to pre-qualify for a home loan.
The benefits for pre-qualifying for a home loan are numerous. First off, it can give you an exact number you can afford, so you can start to break down the entire Sarasota FL real estate market and decide where you want to live and where you don´t. Just like every other place in the USA, there are areas of Sarasota that are extremely expensive and other parts which are much more affordable. By pre-qualifying for a home loan, you can narrow down your future home search to the areas that have homes in your price range. You´ll save yourself a ton of time and legwork for when you come to Sarasota and start to look at homes.
A second reason is that potential buyers will take your offer and your interest in their home much more seriously if you show up on their doorstep and tell them that you are pre=qualified for a home loan. It is taken as a sign of seriousness that you want to buy their property. Many people who come to open houses or knock on the door of a sellers home are simply looking to gawk and get a free tour of a home. If you´re pre-qualified for a home loan, it´s like flashing a badge that says "I´m legitimate." You´ll get a much better response from local real estate agents and from potential sellers.
How do you pre-qualify for a home loan? The process isn´t that different than getting a mortgage. You would simply visit the bank and fill out some paperwork. The bank will take a whole series of factors into consideration, but the biggest factor will be your yearly income. Other important factors are the savings you have and the amount you would have available in cash to put down for a down payment and for closing costs. Also, your credit report would be taken into consideration, as well. If you have a sparkling credit report, you would likely get a better interest rate that could save you tens of thousands of dollars over the life of your new mortgage, but if you´ve recently declared bankruptcy or if you have a host of other credit problems, you might get stuck with a higher interest rate that could cost you. One final financial aspect the bank will take into consideration is your debt load. The less debt you have, the better off you´ll be in the bank´s eyes.
You can begin to make offers on a home without a pre-qualification, but the chances of your offer being taken seriously are slim. But it is better to make an offer on a home that you´ve fallen in love with and at least try to get it than to not even try.
Once you´ve made the decision to relocate, the whole moving and home buying process can seem overwhelming. There are so many things to do and so many decisions to make, the idea of pre-qualifying for a home loan before you even arrive in Sarasota for the first time to look around slips most people´s minds. But nothing will impress real estate agents and sellers more than showing up in Sarasota having already taken the serious first step towards buying a home. Everyone wants a beautiful Sarasota home, but you can stand out from the crowd by showing up prepared and ready to deal with a pre-qualified home loan from your local bank. GBrey
