What to do first?

[Anonymous]

My husband and I would like to build a house in the spring (March or April) but I am not sure what to do first.  The property is owned by my husband but does not have water, elec, or any other utilities on it.  It has not been cleared off yet or appraised in a while either.  I don't want to spend any extra money doing some of these things if we will not get the loan we would like.  We have found a local builder and a house plan, just not sure what to do first and when to do everything.

Thanks

[hawkeye33]

Sounds like the first thing you need to do is to have estimates on all the work required (not only building the home, but getting all utilities available, clearing the land, etc.) and go and get a pre-approval from lender. That would at least give you a good, solid feel for what you can get for a loan. Of course, you wouldn't be locked into a rate at that point, which could obviously change between now and the spring. Good luck.

[Anonymous]

Thanks for the info.  I have already talked to the water ane power co's & know about what that will cost.  I wasn't sure about doing a preapproval now since it will still be several months before we are ready to begin doing anything.  Will running my credit to get an idea of preapproval amounts lower my score?  I was waiting until all CC's & loans were paid off before doing anything which will be about March or April.

Thanks,

[hawkeye33]

The inquiry could lower your score, yes. Given your timeline you mention, I would probably get all the estimates in line so you have a good idea of how much you will need to borrow, then hold tight as you clean up your debt. You could go to a lender (especially a local Credit Union or other lender) and provide them all the info (including your current credit scores) and see if they could give you an idea of the terms you could get on the type(s) of loans in which you are interested without running a credit check.

Once you're ready to move forward, then start getting preapprovals or just flat out apply. Make sure you shop around and do it all within a few weeks of one another so it will only count as a single inquiry on your report.

[Anonymous]

Thanks for the info.