PRE-QUALIFICATION LETTERS
It has become common place today to request a pre-qualification letter to
accompany the presentation of an offer to purchase. The perception is that a
letter of confirmation of the buyer's ability to qualify for a loan can be critical
in the seller's willingness to accept the purchase offer.
The reliability of the pre-qualification letter depends upon the information
provided to the lender. Preferably, the lender would like to have conducted a
credit report, verified income and identified the cash required in the
transaction. At the very least, it is recommended that the lender will have
acquired pay check stubs, bank statements and other easily provided information
with which to render their opinion. Too often, however, the pre-qualification
letter is prepared after having only had a conversation with the prospective
borrower, relying solely on information acquired without any written
confirmation. It is important, then, to know the extent of the information upon
which the pre-qualification letter is based. Only then will you be able to
judge the dependability of the buyer's pre-qualification.
In contrast to the pre-qualification letter is the "pre-approval"
of the borrower. With today's "automated underwriting" capacity, less
information is required and almost immediate approval can be acquired. It is
still critical that the information inserted into the automated process be
accurate. So, the acquisition of pay stubs, bank statements and other
documentation is important if the pre-approval is be
depended upon. A pre-approval, however, "guarantees" that the buyer
is capable of purchasing at the identified mortgage level. All that will be
necessary to close the transaction, following the pre-approval, will be the
property appraisal and the title and escrow information.
There are conflicting philosophies as to exactly when a pre-qualification or
pre-approval letter should be presented to the seller. Some prefer to have a
letter available at the time of original presentation of the purchase offer.
This letter often does not identify the actual loan amount for which the buyer
is qualified, but rather is of a more general nature. Others prefer to finalize
the transaction with the understanding that a letter will be acquired within 24
hours of the acceptance of the offer. In this latter situation, the letter
confirms that the buyer is qualified for the actual loan amount identified in
the purchase contract.
Let's examine the timing for presenting the pre-qualification or
pre-approval letter in a bit more detail. Let's assume a purchase contract with
an offer to purchase of $250,000 with an anticipated 95% Loan-to-value ratio
loan of $237,500. If the offer to purchase includes a pre-approval letter
indicating that the borrower is "approved for a $237,500 loan", does
it help or hinder the process? For instance, what if the seller is unwilling to
accept the $250,000 offer and wants to counter offer at a higher price? Would
the seller be reluctant to do so, perhaps believing that the $237,500 pre-approval
amount is the maximum available to the buyer? Would this disadvantage the
buyer?
Now, let's look at the other possibility. The buyer is actually pre-approved
for a total loan amount of $250,000 but wants to make an offer, as indicated
above, with only a $237,500 loan amount. If a seller sees a pre-approval letter
for a $250,000 loan amount is it likely that the seller will want to counter
offer at a higher price, recognizing that the buyer can obviously "afford
it"? Doesn't this have the potential to disadvantage the buyer?
An alternative to the above scenarios could be to indicate to a seller that
a pre-qualification or pre-approval letter will be forthcoming within three
days of the signing of the purchase contract. Three days will allow a lender
sufficient time to provide an accurate analysis of the borrower’s ability
to purchase.
So, there is a strategy to when to provide a pre-qualification or
pre-approval letter and determining exactly what it should include. We will
gladly provide either type of letter upon request. Additionally, we will
identify within our letters the actual data upon which we base our opinion . .
. thereby providing a bit more reliability in the pre-qualification and/or
pre-approval.
Regardless of when the pre-qualification or pre-approval letter is provided,
any letter is only as reliable as the information upon which the opinion is
based and upon the competency and veracity of the lender providing the
information. Our reputation is that if "Humboldt Home Loans says that a borrower
is qualified, you can depend on it". We look forward to providing you a
letter of pre-qualification or pre-approval should you wish to contact us in
preparation for your home loan.
Web Page/Pre Approval