Pre-Qualification
Being pre-qualified for the purchase of a home is the single best approach to buying a new home. This pre-qualification can position you in the proper price range as well as provide documentation as to your qualification to prospective seller. Most any loan institution will be more than happy to pre-qualify you. This in no way locks you into using that institution when it comes time to actually shop for the loan you will use to purchase your home.

Loan Types
In today's market the price of homes has brought about a fair amount of "creative financing" options. There are your typical fixed rate loans that have even been extended to 40 years rather than the typical 30 year. Adjustable Rate Mortgages or ARM's have been around for a number of years and allow for a often lower "qualifying rate" that later adjusts to a slightly higher rate shortly after your purchase and continues to adjust up or down at regular intervals. There are a multitude of variations to these fixed and adjustable mortgages that can be explained by the different loan officers at the loan institution of your choice.

Keep in mind that all companies that offer home financing are working with the same "cost of money" and in most cases will offer you the same interest rates for a given type loan. Where the difference comes in is:
1) the amount of "closing costs" they may or may not charge.
2) the types of loans or interest rate(s) they will charge you based on your Credit Score.
3) the types of loan "programs" they may offer.
4) the "flexibility" of qualification and/or approval. Financial institutions/banks such as Bank of America or Countywide Finance have a set selection of loans and usually a single source of approval. A mortgage company or "broker" generally has a number of companies they can select different types of loans from and in turn each has it own approval process.

The following links are designed to help you with your upcoming home financing. The ones at the top are ones I typically refer to my clients. The others are currently popular sources with the last links being Tools you might find helpful.

Once again, please call or email with any questions or concerns.

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