So, you’re ready to buy your first home. No doubt you’ve put a lot of thought into the decision, carefully considering your financial position and where you are personally in your life. Once you’ve come to this decision, the next step is to Find Home financing in Chatham IL. But wait? Wouldn’t the first step be finding a house to buy? Not necessarily. In fact, many realtors will ask you to get pre-approved for home financing before they put together a list of homes to show you.
Why is this? The main reason is because there are a lot of homes out there, ranging widely in price. Your realtor needs to narrow down all of these options, and the first step for him or her is to cross homes off the list that are out of your price range. To do this, he or she needs to know how much you are pre-approved for. So before you talk to realtors, you’ll want to talk to a financial institution that offers mortgage services. Your current institution might be a good choice, although you’ll want to shop around for the best terms.
The best way to start is by visiting the websites of various mortgage brokers in your area, to gather some basic information on home financing in Chatham IL. And there is a lot of info you can gather right off an instititution’s website, including what types of loans they offer, current interest rates, and even various mortgage calculators. For example, Diamond Residential Mortgage Corp. offers a quick quote calculator, as well as calculators to help you visualize how much you would save by buying a home versus renting. The information you get from these calculators, as well as the other basic information you find, will prove very helpful in taking the next step – choosing a mortgage provider.
Once you’ve done some basic research, you’ll have a better idea of which mortgage providor you would like to work with. Many allow you to start the process through their website and over the phone, although it’s advisable to meet with your loan officer at least once face-to-face. You can expect the pre-approval process to take at least a week, and probably a little longer. Once it’s done, however, you can start the search for your first home, knowing that when you find it, there’s nothing holding you back from making an offer immediately.