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First time writer. Long time reader here.
My wife and I wanted to buy a house 2 years ago. Well we were young and nieve. Well we found out our credit scores were messed up for various reasons. We have spent about a year and a half rebuilding our credit and have scores in the mid 600's. We have saved up to date $35,000 for a down payment while being careful with our credit and watching what we spend on.
Anywho, we started looking last month and got preapproved for an FHA loan. We have the letter and everything. My question is: when we find the house we want and make an offer, assuming the offer is accepted, is having the preapproval letter as good as having the loan? If that makes sense. Will we be sitting around wondering for a month if we can actually get the mortgage i guess is what i'm after.
If the lender has pre-approved you through something similar to the mortgage pre-approval process then your pre-approval should be as good as having the loan, and then it'd all come down to the home.
Thank you for your response. Now I have another question.
We have found a house and the offer has been accepted. The purchase price is for about 22K lees than we were approved for. We are getting an FHA loan becasue of my sketchy credit in the past. The last missed payment i had was about a year to year and a half. Other than that my credit looks ok to me. We have 28% to put down on and the seller is covering closing costs. We are going through Wells Fargo. Today they appraisal was done and the title work sent off. Last week we had an inspection done and there are only a few things that need done. Had the work quoted today and it comes to $88. The sellers is going to pay for this to be done. My wife is very easy going and says everything is working smoothly and going to be fine. Our realtor talked with our LO and she thinks we will be closing at the end of next week. I just wonder when the underwritting "headache"' is going to come along. The whole deal has gone too smoothly for how everything else seems to go in my life. Are thinngs going too smoothly or will it start to become a headache?
With a 28% down payment and FHA financing, buying a home $22k less than your pre-approval, I'd be surprised if there were many headaches. Ask your loan officer what remaining items the underwriter is waiting on before clearing your loan to close, it'll help you get some peace of mind on what lies ahead.
Once again thanks for you words of wisdom.
I had to write a letter of why i had some inquireies, we bought a car in January, and a letter of why my address changed 3 times in 5 years. Other than that no "headaches". (fingers still crossed) We are set to close on 6/23 at 1pm. My LO said underwriting said my file was clean and looked good. Is there anything that may "back door" me? This is just a stressful step in life and makes me nervous even though i probably don't need to be. Thanks again!
You are welcome, it sounds like things are on track as long as you get the clear to close from underwriting on Monday or Tuesday.
Thanks for all the info. We are closing 6/23 at 4pm! It sure went a lot easier than i ever imagined!
My crystal ball works well Congrats on your closing tomorrow!
Well it is a done deal. Keys in hand. Thanks for all your words of wisdom.
My only advice is get get things in order a year a head of time and hopefully it will go as smoothly as it did for me. Out of all of the horror stories I'm glad i can be the silver lining for my sake!