Mortgage Preapproval: Why to Talk to a Lender Before House Hunting

NEW EPISODE ALERT — Real Talk Real Estate Podcast

This week Christina and Andy are behind the mics, and they're breaking down something every buyer needs to hear before they ever start house hunting: preapproval isn't a formality — it's a strategy session.

Here's what they got into

Preapproval ≠ one-size-fits-all. There are multiple loan programs and rate options out there, and what you qualify for depends on a lot more than you'd think. A lender conversation early on sets your whole plan up right.

"Clean credit" can still have surprises. Even if you pay every bill on time, there can be something lurking in your credit report quietly working against you. Better to find it — and fix it — months before you're ready to buy, not during the deal.

Planning ahead = more money in your pocket. The earlier you start the conversation, the more options (and leverage) you have.

Moral of the story: talk to a lender before you tour homes. New episodes drop every week — give it a listen!

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Episode Transcript

Andy: I'm Andy Webb.

Christina: And Christina Day.

Andy: This is Real Talk Real Estate. Christina, I love having you in studio because you always have great perspectives on things. And when it comes to mortgages, this is a part of the home buying process that pretty much touches everybody. But not every mortgage application or process is going to be a slam dunk, right? There's a lot of wildcards.

Christina: Oh, yeah. And the interesting thing is, I think people think you just, you know, a mortgage is like chocolate, vanilla and strawberry and you go in and they pick one for you that fits. And that's, that's it. End of the day. But it's not. They are so creative with the ways that they can do things. And there's so many little caveats. You know, we've had some things happen recently. And I thought it was really important to share. People always want to wait till the last minute to deal with the mortgage application.

Andy: Because there's so much involved. It's like eating your vegetables before your meats.

Christina: Right. Right. Right. So you have to do it up front and you have to do it in advance. So, for example, I have a client right now who isn't planning on buying until probably the end of 2027. But both of them have unique income. One is self-employed. The other has just started a new job and it involves a lot of overtime. So I said to them, let's make sure we have our ducks in a row. And when you're filing your taxes, you're filing it for the amount of income based on your deductions that you need in order to qualify to buy what you want to buy.

Andy: Gotcha.

Christina: Right. Because us self-employed people, we write off everything. Right. Then you have overtime. Right. Not all overtime counts initially. You need a history of overtime. And so we had a meeting with the lender and the lender explained, you know, what they would need with the self-employment income documentation, what they would need with the overtime documentation. And then also that there were all these various loan programs that could potentially work for them and what they needed to do with their credit and things of that nature, what to pay off, what to pay down, where we want that credit score. And it gives them time to get their selves in the best possible position to get the best possible interest rate.

Andy: So what I'm hearing is the lesson in this is that it's good to work in advance, not just in advance, but well in advance on getting that mortgage pre-approval process going.

Christina: Oh, for sure. And, you know, we just had another person who, you know, they had been pre-approved, but what they didn't realize was that there was something on their credit that was bringing their credit down, which was impacting their credit score and also limiting the amount of loan programs that they would qualify for and negatively impacting their interest rate. If they just take the time to fix that one thing, it could save them a couple hundred dollars a month.

Andy: Which adds up.

Christina: Yes. And so we said, okay, let's pause. Let's not rush into the buying. Let's fix this and save you a couple hundred dollars a month.

Andy: Right. A year or so of working on these things versus 30 years of having to deal with a fallout.

Christina: For sure. For sure. So I tell everybody, you know, the most important part of buying a house is how much is it going to cost me out of pocket and how much is it going to cost me a month? It doesn't matter what you, quote unquote, qualify for. For example, the first couple I was talking about, they want to pay $4,000 a month. They can afford to pay $5,500 a month. They don't want to pay $5,500 a month.

Andy: Right. That's the ceiling.

Christina: Right. So it's really important to know, okay, well, at $4,000 a month, if I have this amount of money to put down, this is what I can buy. And now we know where we should be shopping as opposed to just winging it and scrolling through the websites and looking at things and wishful thinking. Let's have a real plan and let's look at what we truly want to afford.

Andy: It's a lot easier to just wish.

Christina: Yeah, we can all do that.

Andy: The hard work requires hard work. If people have questions about doing it the right way and also the right mortgage lenders and things like that, you guys have that expertise, right?

Christina: Yes. Yes. We have people that we know, like, and trust, people who have done our own mortgages in the past that we've trusted with our own finances or our family's finances, not just our clients.

Andy: That's awesome. So reach out, Jay, Christina and their team. They would love to help you out with that and maybe even get you into the process, the mortgage preapproval process for this week's House of the Week.

Christina: Yes. Yes. So we have a really great house. It is 206 Weldon Drive in Boonsboro. It is listed at 415 and it is a fully remodeled, like fully remodeled house. New kitchen, new bathrooms, new floors, fresh paint, new deck, new roof, new HVAC, all of it.

Andy: New house, who dis?

Christina: Right. Right. So it's a nice little rancher. It has 1488 square feet, a really big family room. Super cool space. So this house is available. And if you would like to see it, just give us a call. We'll be happy to take you on a private tour.

Andy: I'm Andy Webb.

Christina: Christina Day.

Andy: This is Real Talk Real Estate.