What comes first? Financing or make an offer.

[Brandon Shelling]

I'm new to real estate investing. I would like to know what comes first once I find potential properties after running my numbers? Should I find potential lenders before I attempt to make an offer or make the offer then financing?

[Sean Walton]

It depends what kind of property and where you found them and what kind of financing you are getting. If your offer doesn't have a financing contingency in order to look more competitive in a hot market you want to know how much you can get in financing and how quickly or have cash or access to cash in case you don't qualify.

If you have a bank or mortgage broker already they can give you a pre-qualification letter that gives more merit to your offer.

If this is an off market deal and the seller knows you will need to get financing to close you can go for financing after the offer but it is a good idea to figure out how much you can get pre-approved for anyway. @Chris Mason also recently informed me that some brokers can do "full approvals" where they more rigorously run the underwriting and as long as the property appraises as expected they can approve you for a set loan amount at up to a certain LTV

Unless you have a track record with a local bank or a line of credit you can't get actual financing lined up until the lender knows what the property is and has it appraised.