Mortgage process when purchase window is highly variable?

[iced]

Hopefully an easy question for the mortgage gurus out there:

I am looking to buy a home in the next few years, but I want to bide my time and wait for the right property to come along and then pounce quickly. That home could come on the market in 2 weeks, or it could be 2 years.

What can I do to ensure I'm ready to pull the trigger on a purchase quickly if I don't know when I need to pull said trigger yet? It seems pre-approvals have a shelf life of only a few months at best and if each pre-approval requires paperwork and hard pulls, it doesn't scale well to my time window.

[DallasLoanGuy]

depends on the file profile.

i put in an offer without a pre-approval. because i knew the parameters.

my suggestion: find a trusted lender/loan officer.... not the lowest rate  bidder.

get pre-approved. 

talk about what can and cannot change between now and 2yrs so you KNOW if you are in danger of falling out of approval by some material change.

find a house? get pre-approved within a couple of hours and make offer.

[iced]

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@DallasLoanGuy wrote:

depends on the file profile.

i put in an offer without a pre-approval. because i knew the parameters.

my suggestion: find a trusted lender/loan officer.... not the lowest rate  bidder.

get pre-approved. 

talk about what can and cannot change between now and 2yrs so you KNOW if you are in danger of falling out of approval by some material change.

find a house? get pre-approved within a couple of hours and make offer.

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Thanks! On to the hard part - getting pre-approved.