The First Step in the Home Buying Process: Getting Pre-Qualified

Looking to sell your home? Get a free home value report

 Buying a Virginia home? Search all homes for sale

Have you ever wondered what the first step in the home buying process is? Today, Tim Curtin from Americorp Mortgage Services is here to help answer that question.

Before you even start looking at homes, the first thing you need to do is get pre-qualified. You simply call your lender, talk to them about what you want to do, and then they will take your personal information, income, and assets to figure out what kind of loan you will qualify for.

A pre-qualification is different from a pre-approval. The pre-qualification is more of a preliminary step. A pre-approval is when the lender goes through and verifies the information you provided during the pre-qualification.

The documents you need to provide to the lender include 30 days worth of paystubs, your W-2s from the last two years, two years of tax returns if you have investment income or are self-employed, bank statements from the last two months, and a photo ID.
 

 
The whole process lasts about 30 days from getting approved to taking the loan to closing. You may even qualify for more than what you can afford. The lender allows you to borrow as much as their guidelines will allow, but that might be more than you can afford. Budget out your monthly mortgage payments in order to know what you can actually afford to spend on a home.

If you have any questions for Tim, you can call him at 703.930.1765 or email him at T.Curtin@Americorp-HomeMortgage.com. As always, if you have any real estate questions, please don't hesitate to reach out to me. I look forward to hearing from you!

Is Now the Time to Buy in Northern Virginia?

Looking to sell your home? Get a free home value report

Buying a Virginia home? Search all homes for sale

Today we have got the latest market update for you for Northern Virginia, and we are excited to share the great numbers we have been seeing. Here’s what’s been happening in the Northern Virginia real estate market:

• New pending contracts increased 14% from August of 2014
• Inventory was up as well, for the 25th consecutive month.
• There were 4,418 new listings added in August, a 1.5% increase over last August
• Our current active inventory in Northern Virginia is high, and sits at 10,599
• The median sale price of $430,000 stayed pretty similar to last year
• The average days on market is up 8.89%

So, we are entering the fall market with high inventory and the days on market increasing. However, buyer demand in Northern Virginia continues to increase, while significant gains in new contracts and closed sales continues to be a trend. 

 Our market is still very strong and continues to improve every year. If you are on the fence about buying now, just know that an impending increase in interest rates could push you out of the price point that you could afford today.

So don’t wait, get prequalified today. If you don’t have a trusted lender, we have plenty that we can refer to you. If you have any questions for us at all, give us a call or send us an email. We look forward to hearing from you!