Pre-Qualification, Pre-Approval, Loan Commitment
Differences Between Pre-Qualification, Pre-Approval, Loan Commitment
It’s important to get pre-approved for a mortgage before you shop for a home, but sometimes the terminology is confusing. Do you understand the differences between the terms pre-qualified, pre-approval and loan commitment?The differences can affect your home buying transaction.
Some real estate agents are confused by the terminology, so it’s no wonder that home buyers and sellers are, too. Although they are related, the three terms each signify a different level of approval from a lender.
Pre-Qualified, Pre-Qualification
Loan pre-qualification does not typically include an analysis of your credit report or an in-depth look at your true ability to buy a home.
You can be pre-qualified by a lender, by a real estate agent or you can do it yourself. The term means that someone has taken a general look at your income and expenses and plugged them in to a debt to income ratio formula.
Pre-qualifying yourself before you start looking for a home gives you a general idea of the price range you can afford. It will not nail-down an interest rate for you, and that factor and others affect the monthly payments a bank will allow you to make.
Pre-Approval
When you are pre-approved for a mortgage, it means a lender has looked closely at both your credit report and your income and determined that you qualify for a loan. The lender will tell you the maximum amount of loan it will make, which loan programs you qualify for, and will discuss the interest rates it will offer for different types of loans.
When you’re pre-approved you can go shopping for a home with confidence about your buying power, but it still isn’t a guarantee that the lender will approve the loan.
Loan Commitment
A lender issues a loan commitment after it has approved both the house and you. A home appraisal must meet the lender’s guidelines, which usually includes a stipulation that the home must appraise at or higher than the sales price.
Price is just one aspect of the home the bank considers. They might want to make sure the appraiser thinks the property will sell within a reasonable amount of time–in case you don’t make payments and they must foreclose.An FHA appraisal is even more detailed than appraisals required for a conventional loan.
Glen Didas, President and Managing Partner of Rochester Area Mortgage Services Inc., can be reached at (585) 385-4400, ext. 13 or by emailing him at gdidas@ramsinc.com