Buying a home is a major financial and emotional event. We work very hard to ensure that the process of obtaining your mortgage is as stress free as possible for you, and the key to this is your pre-approval.

During the pre-approval process, you will provide information about your income, assets, and liabilities, which we will review along with your current credit report to make a preliminary financial determination about how much house you may be able to afford.   Your pre-approval will only be as good as the information that you give, and is subject to verification of that information. Documentation needed for your preapproval can include a few basic documents – such as a recent pay stubs, last year’s W-2s, tax returns for self employed borrowers, and bank statements. The documents needed will vary depending on your particular situation, but you can get a good idea of what is needed for a pre-approval by clicking here.

We will be able to review the long-term ramifications of various financing options by evaluating different mortgage strategies long before you make an offer.  And you will be in a position to close more quickly and smoothly, since you already know what will be required to get your loan approved.   It’s a good idea to know how expensive a home you can afford before you start shopping for one so you don’t waste time looking for properties that are out of your budget. We can begin to discuss options that are tailored to your unique financial situation – which can help to limit your stress level during this major life event.

When you provide a pre-approval letter from an established, reputable, well-known local lender such as the Frank Rexford Mortgage Team at CIMG Residential Mortgage, real estate agents and sellers will take your offer more seriously.  They will recognize that you have taken steps to obtain financing, and that a lender has already found a loan that works for you. A pre-approval letter may sway a home seller to negotiate with you as opposed to another buyer who is not pre-approved or is pre-approved by an unknown lender.

We use the term “pre-approval” and not “pre-qualification” and that is for a good reason.  Some lenders will write a pre-qualification letter simply based on a conversation with you.  We only write pre-approval letters – meaning that we always pull and review a current credit report, and analyze your complete loan application, including your supporting income documentation such as tax returns if you are self employed.