Chicken or egg, which comes first
When it comes to buying a home for sale in Charleston, which comes first, the chicken or the egg. Or to put it another way, do you find a house or find a mortgage.
Lots of people spend a lot of time searching the Internet for Charleston real estate. On average, over 50 people per day search for Charleston homes for sale on my website. Many search day after day and hopefully one day, they find the home of their dreams. Is that home within a price range for a mortgage that they can qualify for. So, can they really buy it when they find it.
If that description fits you, here's the question.
How's your credit.
I suppose you know where I'm going with this and in my opinion, financing is more important than searching for a home. Let's say you think you can obtain a mortgage for a home that costs $200,000, just about the median price of all homes in the Charleston area. And you find some real good choices. But what if you find out that you can only get a mortgage for $180,000. While there are some very nice homes at that price, they just might not be as nice as the one you "fell in love with".
If you want to buy a home for sale in Charleston today, there are very few sellers who will accept your contract without an accompanying letter from a lender verifying your credit has been checked and that you can obtain a mortgage for the amount of the home you are buying. Even the most motivated sellers today won't waste their time on a contract from any buyer who has not obtained mortgage preapproval.
Since underwriting standards have tightened and there are no subprime loans anymore, if you want to buy a home today, you need credit, verification of your income and even some money. We haven't gone back to the days of necessarily putting 20% down but the ability to put some money down is going to be required by most if not all lenders today. So if you don't have any and if your credit is less than stellar, you need to work on saving some money and improving your credit score before dreaming of buying a home. Good lenders can also help you clear up problems on your credit report even if they determine that you might not be able to buy for 6 months or a year.
Good credit is more important than just buying a home, it will give you peace of mind and you'll sleep better at night. It isn't easy but it's that important. So if you need a little help, give me a call or send me an email and I'll put you in touch with several good lenders and then help you with the purchase of a home sometime in the future.
One of the best things you can do is to confirm and preserve your credit. You can get a free copy of your credit report once a year or you can sign up for one of the many identity theft prevention programs that will also provide you with a credit report, your credit score, credit monitoring as well as safeguarding you from identity theft. I highly recommend IdentityGuard.
Photo courtesy of Flickr by ashe-villain.