A lot of people don’t understand the importance of getting pre-approved for a mortgage before they actually start looking for a house. After all, the reasoning goes, I haven’t even found anything yet so how will I know how much I need?

The fact is that getting pre-approved for a mortgage before you start to look for a house will save you a lot of hassle. Let’s take a look at some things you can avoid if you do take the time to get pre-approved.

Getting turned down!

You may not yet have started to look for a house, but it is quite the stressful experience. Once you do find a house where you would like to live, there is a lot of pressure when it comes to making the right offer and then negotiating with the owners. The whole process is quite draining, but imagine if, at the end, you can’t even go through with the sale because the bank won’t approve you for the amount! Getting pre-approval means you don’t run this risk.

Wasting a lot of time shopping over budget

Along the same lines, getting pre-approved for a mortgage will give you an idea of what you can afford before you go out house hunting. If you don’t have a good idea of the financing that you can get, you are likely going to waste a lot of time looking at houses both above and below your purchasing power. A pre-approval gives you a monetary base to work from.

Losing a bidding war!

In a seller’s market there are a lot more buyers than there are houses for sale, meaning if you have been pre-approved you will be able to act quickly when a house does go up for sale. It is not unusual in today’s market for a piece of property to be sold days and even hours after it has been listed, and an owner is likely to give more consideration to a buyer who already has finances in place.

For years, realtors have been encouraging clients to get pre-approved for a mortgage before shopping for a home, and for good reason! Knowing that you have finances available and exactly how much, will save you a lot of time and energy in your search for the perfect home!