Best time for Pre-Approval?

[Anonymous]

Should we get pre-approved before or after we find a house we want to put an offer on? I've done 1 pre-qual, but don't know when the best time to do a pre-approval is.

My wife and I are very picky, so I don't see us buying our first home quickly. I'd love to hear people's opinions.

[Anonymous]

You want to preapprove prior to house hunting. Although these days technology allows you to house hunt right from home on the web

A lot of realtors won't even show you homes unless they have a preapproval letter from a lender.

[AmandaSD]

Definitly before....we found a real estate agent who is fabulous and will email us listings, but he is very hesitant to show us anything before we are preapproved, which btw we are in the process of be preapproved.

[Anonymous]

Thanks for the answers! Are there disadvantages to getting pre-approved before house hunting? Basically, what if it takes me 6 months to find a house? Would my credit start taking a hit after a while?

[ronq]

There can be. My credit union (NFCU) the approval is only good for 60 days after that you have to apply again. I didn't get pre-approval since I hadn't found a house after actively looking for 3 months. I did a prequal which is really nothing other than you telling them your income and bills and they give you a max amount. It really depends on the lender for how long your pre-approval is good for. My credit union did approve my loan when I did apply within a day even though they siad it could take 3-5 days.