Your Northern Virginia Real Estate Experts w/ Experience & Integrity

Important Terms

PRE-QUALIFICATION =You've talked to a bank or mortgage broker about getting a loan, answered some basic questions, & been told that it's possible (this is highly encouraged if you want to write an offer)!

QUALIFICATION =The bank or mortgage broker has pulled your credit report, & everything looks good for you to obtain a loan.

PRE-APPROVAL =a specific lender has approved your application, & committed themselves to giving you a loan provided certain contingencies are met (e.g. house appraises for equal to or greater than loan amount)!

APPROVAL =underwriter has approved your loan for the purchase of a specific property & sent a commitment package to you (obviously, this puts you in the strongest buying position & should be your preferred course of action).

Items Needed for Mortgage Loan Pre-Approval

Following is a list of items you'll need at loan application to get pre-approved. Pre-approval is not the same as prequalification, so you won't need all these things to get pre-qualified by phone. However, pre-approval will be necessary before you can obtain a loan commitment from a lender, so be prepared to gather the following items;

1. W-2 (2 Years) & 2 month's current pay-stubs

2. Landlord Name / Address - 2 Years

3. Employer Name / Address - 2 Years

4. Purchase Agreement or Deed if Refinancing

5. Bank Names, Account #s, Balances

6. Bank Statements - Most Recent 3 Months, all Accounts

7. 12 Months Cancelled Checks for Mortgage or Rent

8. Check for Application Fee & Rate Lock

9. Self-Employed - Last 2 Years Tax Returns with all Schedules, YTD, P & L

10. Green Card for Resident Aliens

11. Social Security Card & License (FHA)

12. Legal Description (FHA / VA)

13. Certificate of Eligibility (VA)

14. Account #s, Address's, Balances / Monthly Payments on all Open Loans (including Pre-Payment Penalties)

15. Legal Picture Identification.

Helpful Mortgage Loan Information

Being pre-qualified for a Loan is a must if you don't want to miss out on market opportunities. It gives you a realistic price range in which to look and prevents you from wasting your time, the seller's time, and your Realtor's time looking at properties for which you don't qualify. Better yet, is Loan pre-approval. If you are pre-approved before looking at homes, you can quickly make an offer on a home with the confidence that if your offer is accepted, the chances are really good that you will end up with that home. Also, pre-approval increases the attractiveness of your offer, making it relatively stronger than competing offers of the same, or even a greater price, by eliminating the financing contingency, & thereby making your offer more likely to be accepted by the seller. With this important & sometimes transaction-killing contingency removed, the seller knows that you are serious about the home & are not planning on using the contingency as a way to back out of the transaction.

The steps involved in the pre-approval process are straight-forward, but can take time. It requires time to assemble all the records and write the letters, etc. The time to begin taking these steps is right now - before you actually start looking at any properties. If you want to work with us, the first step we should take is to get you pre-approved by an excellent Lender. If you do not have one, we have several top notch Lenders that we work with on a regular basis that we can recommend. They all have excellent Track Records, & if they didn't, we would not advise you to use them, because we will only work with Lenders who; have integrity & let you know where you stand up front, are competent & do what they say they can do for you on time, who put your needs first & will tell you when something is not in your best interest & why, who are willing to meet with you face to face & give you their utmost attention during your meetings (which often leads to the discovery of a different strategy that better suits your needs), who return our phone calls & e-mails, & who are accountable for their actions & don't make excuses. These qualities are extremely rare in any profession nowadays, but they are extremely important to the RockinRealty Team because, since we put our Clients' needs first, we want all the Lenders we work with to do the same. You may not even realize how much this will help you meet your goals, but we do -which is probably why you've come to us to look out for your best interest in the first place.

If we don't feel comfortable with, or have reservations about, a party to your transaction, we'll let you know immediately. We can tell you tragic stories about many Buyers who lost homes because they chose to deal with an incompetent Lender. For example, when the Listing Agent of a property a Buyer made an offer on, called the Buyer's Internet Lender in another state to make sure the Lender was competent & the Buyer was truly qualified, the Lender couldn't even remember the Buyer (because they'd never met in person) & seemed unorganized because of the time it took for them to have to look up information on the Buyer, rather than having kept the person fresh in their mind. This is more likely to occur if you've met in person. Another example occurred when a Lender couldn't meet the contract deadline & deliver the Loan on time -so the Seller put the house back on the market to be sold to someone else. These are just two examples of such stories! When a Listing Agent calls your Lender with questions about you while the Seller is trying to decide on whether or not to accept your offer, the RockinRealty Team only wants Lenders who will pick up the phone & within seconds, be able to confidently tell that Agent everything they need to hear about how well qualified you are to ensure your chances are maximized. They must present themselves as friendly, organized, & knowledgeable about their business & especially about you.

Ironically, most Buyers go with the Lender who quotes them the lowest rate. But when they're dealing with someone without integrity, the rates or terms usually change, or are not fully disclosed. Consequently the Buyer ends up paying more, not less, for the Loan, if it even happens at all. Because of this, we maintain a list of reliable Lenders we can feel secure in recommending to our Clients. They are the ones who still remain after all the others have weeded themselves out over the years. We use them ourselves & we feel that these Lenders consistently continue to deliver world class service that is worthy of our Clients' business.

Our in-house Team Lender, Robert Pritchard, shares our Reston office, & can be reached directly @ 703-444-HOME (4663) x 130. Through an abundance of special loan products to suit every circumstance, he can save you hundreds of dollars on your monthly payment, allowing you to finance a bigger dream! He also works very well with difficult loans for people who have credit issues. He gets loans done! He is very knowledgeable & extremely honest, & will let you know in advance as to whether or not he can help you. Rob is a good choice if you want convenience & a competitive rate, & he can pre-qualify you over the phone if you give him a call. While you're on the phone, please tell him you're working with a Member of the RockinRealty Team and you wish to be pre-qualified for a home loan, & to schedule a face to face meeting after he's pulled your credit. If he's not in, simply leave a message and he'll get back with you.

Please keep in mind that each time your Credit Report is pulled by a different company, it slightly lowers your score, so be selective initially. Just go to one Lender at a time, & make sure it's the Lender best suited to your Lending needs. Also, each bank you visit can see who else has pulled your score. Rob can point you in the right direction in the off chance he can't do your loan himself. One nice thing about using a mortgage broker like Rob, is that your credit score is pulled only once by the broker & provided to each prospective bank by the broker, rather than each bank you visit pulling it individually.  Once you have your credit score, you can safely talk to another Lender without jeopardizing your ability to get a loan, as long as your Credit Score is not too close to the standard lower limits allowable for the type of Loan you're trying to get. Remember, pre-qualification is merely a first step leading toward pre-approval (see explanation below).