Buyers, Get Your Financing in Order Before You Look

Financing is not easy to obtain in today's market, so I always request that the buyer speaks with a lender and at a minimum, get prequalified.  This can be done with only a phone conversation.  It's frustrating both for the buyer and for the agent to show properties that the buyer obviously will not be able to get approved for.  Preapproval is even better.  That is when the buyer actually does a full application and credit is pulled to get a much firmer idea of what the buyer can afford to purchase.  That way, when the buyer finds something to put in an offer on, there is no delay in obtaining that lender preapproval letter, that should absolutely go in with the offer.  The buyer won't be beat out by other buyers that had all their ducks in a row and were able to subit their offer within hours of seeing the property.  Those few hours can cause a buyer to lose out on a great deal.