Is this normal? Realtor won't show us anything without a pre-approval?

[AKL_Megs]

You really shouldn't be wasting any realtor's time if you aren't seriously ready to buy. It isn't fair to be taking someone's time that way. If you just want to look, you guys should go to some open houses, or just drive around and look at properties from the outside.

We are ready to buy tomorrow... but what? We haven't SEEN anything! Isn't that the job of a realtor? To SHOW us? And we want to try our credit union, our bank and maybe others! Our bank says they will beat any rate... so, why can't we SEE houses in the meantime... kill two birds!

 

[Piglets Mommy]

We are ready to buy tomorrow... but what? We haven't SEEN anything! Isn't that the job of a realtor? To SHOW us? And we want to try our credit union, our bank and maybe others! Our bank says they will beat any rate... so, why can't we SEE houses in the meantime... kill two birds!

The Pre-approval can be done very fast, often in a day. It doesn't lock you into anytiing, if that's what you are worried about. you can get a pre-approval from one bank, and if you find better terms somewhere else, go with that in the end. It will just let you know what you can qualify for.

 

[TheBigBadWolf]

If you are sure you are going to buy in the next few months then get preapproved now so you aren't wasting your time and you don't have to spend your time convincing others.

It isn't about the the realtor, it is about you. You must consider that a hard pull of any kind can affect your credit. If you think you may spend 6 months or more on house hunting then you will most likely have to get preapproved again which means the first pull may affect your next preapproval.

Back when Real estate was hot you had to be preapproved to move quickly now you don't unless you know you will buy soon.

If you are disappointed easily I would also suggest getting preapproved so there is no surprise but do it for your benefit not because it makes the agent feel better.

I totally agree with this post. When we were house shopping (3 years ago), our realtor strongly pushed us to get pre approved. We didn't because we didn't want an extra hit on our credit and we didn't know how long it would take to find our dream home (6 months). We knew our credit score was very high, and we knew we'd qualify for much more $$ than we were willing to spend.

I would never sign with a "buyers" realtor, either. Our realtor really pushed homes her company had listed, and didn't show us all the homes available in our area until I found them myself. I know I did as much work as the realtor in locating our home. The home we eventually purchased was a "FSBO" and the realtor never mentioned it to us or stepped foot in it. Why should I pay her a commission for a home I found myself? If she had done her job properly, she would have gotten a nice commission. We needed a very specific type home, rural with privacy on an acreage, new(er) built with horse pastures and a barn. There were not THAT many homes with our specific needs in our area.

You definitely need a new realtor. Find one you are comfortable with and make sure you are in charge. The realtor works for YOU, and in this economy, they should be happy for your business.

 

[AKL_Megs]

The Pre-approval can be done very fast, often in a day. It doesn't lock you into anytiing, if that's what you are worried about. you can get a pre-approval from one bank, and if you find better terms somewhere else, go with that in the end. It will just let you know what you can qualify for.

True. I guess we will bite the bullet!

 

[Briarmom]

We are ready to buy tomorrow... but what? We haven't SEEN anything! Isn't that the job of a realtor? To SHOW us? And we want to try our credit union, our bank and maybe others! Our bank says they will beat any rate... so, why can't we SEE houses in the meantime... kill two birds!

But your realtor doesn't know if you can afford a $50,000 house or a $1,000,000 house. That's pretty important.

 

[AKL_Megs]

You definitely need a new realtor. Find one you are comfortable with and make sure you are in charge. The realtor works for YOU, and in this economy, they should be happy for your business.

You are right! They work for US!!! We will give him another shot, and then find someone else, or look on our own. We have some other recommended realtors, so...

 

[Bren's Mom]

We are ready to buy tomorrow... but what? We haven't SEEN anything! Isn't that the job of a realtor? To SHOW us? And we want to try our credit union, our bank and maybe others! Our bank says they will beat any rate... so, why can't we SEE houses in the meantime... kill two birds!

The job of the realtor is to help in choosing and purchasing a home. It's fine for them to show you houses until they're blue in the face, but if you can't actually purchase it then he/she is out alot of time and doesn't get paid.

I'm beginning to wonder if the agent is blowing you off because he doesn't believe you are serious buyers.

As MANY of us on this thread have said, get a preapproval. That does NOT mean you have to use that bank for the loan. It simply is a piece of paper that one lender has written on saying that they've looked at your credit and income and they believe they would write a loan for you up to X amount. It doesn't even hold them to anything hard and fast, as something could come up and they could change their minds. But it does hold some weight in that they're just not given out blindly.

Then with the preap letter in hand, start looking. And in the meantime, call around to lenders, get their rates and fees, and start deciding on who you want to go with. When you find your dream house, make an offer, make a final decision on a lender and then move forward.

 

[AKL_Megs]

The job of the realtor is to help in choosing and purchasing a home. It's fine for them to show you houses until they're blue in the face, but if you can't actually purchase it then he/she is out alot of time and doesn't get paid.

I'm beginning to wonder if the agent is blowing you off because he doesn't believe you are serious buyers.

As MANY of us on this thread have said, get a preapproval. That does NOT mean you have to use that bank for the loan. It simply is a piece of paper that one lender has written on saying that they've looked at your credit and income and they believe they would write a loan for you up to X amount. It doesn't even hold them to anything hard and fast, as something could come up and they could change their minds. But it does hold some weight in that they're just not given out blindly.

Then with the preap letter in hand, start looking. And in the meantime, call around to lenders, get their rates and fees, and start deciding on who you want to go with. When you find your dream house, make an offer, make a final decision on a lender and then move forward.

Thank you for this.

I think the whole thing is the realtor... I just get a bad vibe from him. He was recommended to us, and we chose him, we ARE serious, and he still seems so distant! I just get a weird feeling, and it started with the commission comment.

 

[Bren's Mom]

Oh, and one other thing. We were working with a broker (who we loved, she did our purchase and just did our refi and she's awesome...but anyway) who said she'd write up a preap letter anytime we needed one. And this was important. Dh and I both make good money. According to the banks, we could purchase a home that was waaaayyyyyy above anything we would have considered. With child support for dss, wanting to continue to take vacations with our kids, child care, etc...there's not way we would have purchased a home for the amount we were preapproved for. We did NOT want potential sellers to see this # either, for obvious reasons. So when we needed a preap letter (if requested by a seller's agent) we'd call the broker and she'd give our agent a new preap letter with a dollar amount of just a little less than what the house was on the market for. They'd still show it to us, but wouldn't be able to think 'Hey, they're rich, I can get them to pay too much for this house!'

 

[minkydog]

Oh, and one other thing. We were working with a broker (who we loved, she did our purchase and just did our refi and she's awesome...but anyway) who said she'd write up a preap letter anytime we needed one. And this was important. Dh and I both make good money. According to the banks, we could purchase a home that was waaaayyyyyy above anything we would have considered. With child support for dss, wanting to continue to take vacations with our kids, child care, etc...there's not way we would have purchased a home for the amount we were preapproved for. We did NOT want potential sellers to see this # either, for obvious reasons. So when we needed a preap letter (if requested by a seller's agent) we'd call the broker and she'd give our agent a new preap letter with a dollar amount of just a little less than what the house was on the market for. They'd still show it to us, but wouldn't be able to think 'Hey, they're rich, I can get them to pay too much for this house!'

Say, that was a great idea about the pre-approval letter. I'm going to file that tidbit away for later. We'll be selling in a couple years and on paper we look good. I don't want sellers to think we're Mr. & Mrs. Richie Rich*(we're not, we just invested well and made good decisions.)

I agree with you about buying the house you need & can afford, not the house you can get approved for. I see it with young marrieds all the time. They have stars in their eyes. They find an upscale neighborhood and fall in love with a large house, the pool, the fun neighborhood teeming with kids. They think this is their Dream Home, where they'll raise their kids and enjoy all the benefits of suburban life together. They get approved for a large loan based on both their incomes and proceed to fully furnish the house.

Once they move in they find out what the *real* costs of home ownership are. And sometimes they find out that they really can't afford the dream house and thats where the trouble begins: They have a baby and want Mom to stay home, but they can't afford that--gotta make the mortgage payment. They put the baby in daycare and they *sure* can't afford that Gotta pay $1000/month to the daycare. They buy an SUV(more credit)to tote the kids around. They start to see their credits card balances going up. Then a bad economy strikes. He or she loses their job or the bonuses don't come through, adding more stress to the situation. Their home is in danger of foreclosure. They may have to let the SUV go back to the bank. Dad and Mom are stressed to the hilt and the marriage suffers. They may even talk about divorce and splitting what's left of the assets. All because they made bad choices from the get-go.

How do I know all this? Because we made a similar mistake. We bought a house that we loved and took out a mortgage that was really too large. We had a 2yo and we both found jobs. Unfortunatly, my job was extremely stressful and not a good fit. But I couldn't afford to stop working and there was no other place in town that had a job that would pay me as much. We were just miserable. Fifteen months later we unloaded that house for the price we paid for it. Good riddance, IMO. We moved into an apartment for about a year and saved as much money as we could. I went to very part-time, which saved a lot of childcare and I was far less stressed and irritable. We traded our car for an older model station wagon. We moved to an area that had a lower cost of living. And when we finally bought the next house we used only *ONE* income to qualify. We've been here 19 years.

Since we bought the house we have suffered a series of setbacks: we had two more children back-to-back which effectively ended my working for awhile. DH had a brain tumor and he couldn't work for awhile. I got very ill and I couldn't work for awhile. DS made 2 suicide attempts which necessitated hospitalizations. Then DH became permanently disabled and went on SSDI. And finally, I became disabled and had to quit work. But...because of our decision to buy a smaller but serviceable house we have managed to hold onto our home. All our cars and the RV are paid for. The furniture is paid for. Despite the fact that our income has dropped in the last 2 years to less than 1/3 of what it was previously we're doing okay. We can sleep well at night.

 

[overlyspoiled4sure]

I agree you need a new realtor, but getting pre-approved will enable your realtor to show you houses in your price range. Why waste time looking at houses that might stretch your budget too much?

When we started looking, 6 months prior to when we would need to be out of our apartment, we started by going to some open houses in the area. We met our realtor there & she was wonderful getting us started. With a pre-ap in hand, she knew where she could take us, thus saving EVERYONE time! She also knew what we wanted in a house & ended up purchasing the first home she showed us. It was perfect for us empty-nesters! It was in an area we like too & it's close to absolutely everything!! Airport, shopping, USPS/UPS/FedEx & not that bad for schools for the grandkids. The home was also perfect in that the current owners were building & needed to be out about the time we needed the house. Worked well for all of us.

Good luck!

 

[Disney Doll]

I would get a new realtor.....

...and also get the pre-approval process done. Just 'cause you know what you can afford doesn't mean anyone else does. I think that is a fairly normal 1st part of the home buying process.

I agree.

 

[emma'smom]

Dump the realtor......I dumped one because she told me that she couldn't show us houses over a week-end when we were available and we were ready to seriously look. We did some open houses on our own and chatted with a realtor at an open house about the kinds of homes we were looking for. She called us that evening and offered to take us, the next day, to see three houses that fit our description. We went with her and the rest is history. She found us a great house and was patient with walking us through the first-time home-buyer process.

Realtors are a dime a dozen in this economy---you should have a good one!

 

[metime]

It amazes me how many people don't know what they would be approved for until the lender tells them. Make sure if your preapproval comes in higher than you are wanting to pay (not everyone maxes out their preapproval loan) that you make sure the preapproval is for the top of what you want to pay.

We got preapproved for our first house more than double than the price range we were looking in. If we would have shown the agent that or submitted that with offers we would have had a harder time negotiating.

 

[blissventure]

Thank you for this.

I think the whole thing is the realtor... I just get a bad vibe from him. He was recommended to us, and we chose him, we ARE serious, and he still seems so distant! I just get a weird feeling, and it started with the commission comment.

Why would anyone want to continue a relationship (especially that involves a substantial amount of money) with someone they get a "bad vibe" from?


I think you should find another realtor. You're the purchaser. You should select a realtor that that you feel comfortable with, and that you trust.

On pre-approval front, that makes sense. There are lots of folks who are not totally up to speed about how the market has changed in the last two years, and how it will affect them. It's just easier on everyone (sellers and buyers) if folks are looking in the right ballpark, moneywise, from the start.

 

[Liberty Belle]

We first met our realtor before we were pre-approved. He showed us one house and then pushed for us to go ahead and get pre-approved. He kept saying, "how do you know how much house you can get, if you don't know how much mortgage they'll give you."

We tried to explain that we knew what we were comfortable paying, so what did it matter. Our personal limit was no where near what the mortgage broker said our limit would be. It's not like we were going to say "oh, you'll lend us $350,000? Well, then let's go look at all the $350,000 houses."

It sounds like you're just not comfortable with him. I'd ask around, see who was happy with their realtor and give them a call. We were pretty happy with ours, but unless you're near Lexington, KY, I guess it wouldn't do you any good for me to give you his name.

One other thing, our lender asked us how much was the most we were wanting to pay for a house and that is what he wrote the pre-approval for.

 

[blissventure]

We first met our realtor before we were pre-approved. He showed us one house and then pushed for us to go ahead and get pre-approved. He kept saying, "how do you know how much house you can get, if you don't know how much mortgage they'll give you."

We tried to explain that we knew what we were comfortable paying, so what did it matter. Our personal limit was no where near what the mortgage broker said our limit would be. It's not like we were going to say "oh, you'll lend us $350,000? Well, then let's go look at all the $350,000 houses."

It sounds like you're just not comfortable with him. I'd ask around, see who was happy with their realtor and give them a call. We were pretty happy with ours, but unless you're near Lexington, KY, I guess it wouldn't do you any good for me to give you his name.

We've always known what we're comfortable paying. We wouldn't dream of borrowing whatever they "said" we could afford. But, in this economy, it may be very helpful to run actual numbers rather than assuming one knows what they #'s will be--interest rates, closing costs and so on. Some buyers will be able to do this on their own, but it does take some time to do accurate current research.

The other reason it matters is that having a pre-approval does signal you're a "serious" buyer rather than just another in a very long line of lookyloos who are wasting lots of time of realtors and sellers.

Not saying you're that at all, it's just that sometimes in some places it's a problem.

 

[squirrlygirl]

If you don't like the realtor, find another. But if you're seriously house-hunting, why NOT get a pre-approval? Most southeast Michigan home listings are bank-owned. We were recently house-hunting and many listings said pre-approval was required for offers and some said it was required for a showing. Also, many banks are negotiating commission on their homes at a rate less than standard in the area (6%). Maybe he expects you to make up the difference outside of the purchase?