Importance of Being Pre-Approved To Buy A Myrtle Beach Home

Congratulations on deciding to buy a Myrtle Beach home!  What should you do next? This is a question I hear very often when working with new home buyers.  Or, the other common version is a phone call requesting to see a property I recently listed for sale and I ask if they have already been pre-approved with a bank already.  One of the first questions I ask to buyers that I meet on the phone or in person is if they have spoken to someone at a bank and if they have received some sort of pre-approval or pre-qualification letter.

“But I’ve got great credit, a mortgage won’t be an issue!” Boy, if I had a dollar for each time I’ve heard that line.  The other day while I was stuck at the infamous Backgate stoplight in Myrtle Beach, I started a video explaining a conversation I had just finished with a seller on the phone regarding why I don’t normally work with buyers who are not willing to call a bank and get pre-qualified. Watch the video below, and then I’ll share more reasons after the video:

Here are a few other reasons why getting pre-approved can be so helpful:  First, if you are selling your property and have it on the market, you want the agents bringing people through your home to be able to afford buying the home they are looking at.  I remember when we had a few oceanfront homes for sale in Myrtle Beach on the Golden Mile a few years back that we would receive a constant stream of calls wanting to view the property.  What we quickly found out was that many of the people calling to view the home could not afford to purchase, but were just nosey to see what an oceanfront home in Myrtle Beach might look like.   When showing homes to unqualified buyers, it also increases the level of liability to the agents and also the seller if someone or something were to get broken, lost, or injured.

Set the correct expectations.  I started to mention this briefly in the video, but it is very important to set the correct level of expectations for your buyer.  If you start showing them homes for sale over $300,000 and they can only get approved for $120,000, the buyers will be disappointed with everything they see after viewing the more expensive homes to start.   They have already seen the best out there and homes that are half the price will never be able to compare in features, size, age, amenities, and just about everything else.  If you set those expectations accurately in the beginning, and stick to only showing properties the buyer can afford, you never run into this issue.

Save your time & stop judging the book by it’s cover.  I’ll never forget about 8 years ago when I was working with a couple that had walked into our office one rainy afternoon.   They drove up in a new BMW 7 Series dressed up all fancy with gold and bling everywhere.  The gentleman told me when he came in the door that they had come in town to invest a million dollars in properties in the Myrtle Beach area.  I immediately started pulling up dozens of properties on the MLS for them to look at and get the process started.  My father on the other hand, interjected and said that we needed to call the bank first to get pre-approved to purchase this much real estate.  We called in, spoke with the lender and within 10 minutes we came to find out that the gentleman was in debt up to his eyeballs, had liens against his current home, and was also currently involved in a lawsuit. Unfortunately, he couldn’t buy a ten thousand dollar unit, let alone a million dollars worth of real estate.  That ten minute call saved me weeks of work, frustration, and all types of headaches.

So as you can see, while getting a pre-approval when working with an agent is more work before you get to see homes, in the long run it is a major saver on grief, time and heartaches.  It also shows your agent that you are serious about buying a home in Myrtle Beach.  If you want more information on how to go about getting pre-qualified for a mortgage, feel free to contact me for more assistance.