Florida Real Estate Girl

When you’re ready to find a home, the last thing you want to do is limit your possibilities. Dream big, right? But you’d be totally bummed if you found a perfect pad, only to learn you don’t qualify for the home of your dreams. If you don’t earn a loan pre-approval before you start looking, you might actually prevent yourself from finding—and buying—your dream home. Here’s why. Streamlined Hunting With Pre-Approval Most homeowners start out by browsing homes for sale online to get an idea of what neighborhoods and housing styles they like. If you don’t know what you can afford, you may be looking out of your price range and wasting your time. You may also be looking below what you would have qualified for and not getting the right home for you. If you start off by getting a pre-approval, you can sort by price, identify the right neighborhoods, and find your dream home much faster. Better Results From a REALTOR® The bottom line is this: REALTORS® prefer to wo

How Much House Can/Should I Buy? Some Realtors are going to be mad at me for writing this article, but I honestly don't care, because I don't work for them. I work for you. Many real estate agents will get your pre-approval letter from your lender, see how much you are approved for, and only show you houses worth that much. The big problem though, is you may not be able to afford that much house! Better yet, maybe you can afford it, but you don't want to be spending all your hard earned money on your mortgage! The goal of this article is to get you to start thinking about how much you SHOULD pay and not what you CAN afford. I don't like the word CAN in real estate. I CAN technically take a 10 day cruise, but then I would be struggling to pay my bills next month. It would be really fun in the moment, but really suck after. The word SHOULD is what you "should" be using when it comes to purchasing a home. Like, I should go to work today, I should eat