All Forum Posts by: Jordon Nichols

@Dave Skow Yes sir that was the general answer I got from my lender. They said essentially " don't buy a huge boat or stop making car payments and the pre-approval will be good for 12 months"

Gives me a lot of time to shop.

BTW Everyone. I finally moved forward with a pre-approval through veterans unite home loans and the Pre-Approval is good for 12 months. Much longer than anyone thought they would be good for. 

@Branden Sewell I could really use some number running practice as well. I have seen some deals on the MLS recently that through my primitive number running look like way too good of a deal and I'm sure I'm missing something because no one is buying them.

The things that I've notice in my local area is the "D" neighborhoods that start to see business's investing in the area are the one that turn around. Shopping, movie theatres, new gas stations. It's still a gamble though. With population rising everywhere they usually go from D to F.

@Zack Karp Thank you for the information. It is a pretty straight forward question I could have never imagined I would get 7 different answers and 5 that have nothing to do with my question. Lol

Great, 120 days would give me some time to search for a good deal instead of being rushed to close once I'm home!

@Chris Mason

Yeah tons of people especially when they are in the market for their own house. People are very into those shows. Then usually fail at actually flipping because they try to make the place look perfect with a massively expensive rehab.

@Matthew Olszak

Yeah I can see that as an issues. That's a major issue with car sales as well. They come in thinking they can get approved for a 35 grand car cause they have 2k to put down.

I will have to order my FICO 08 score now to see how different it is.

The main reason for looking ahead this far is to get a good feel for what average deals look like so when I see a good opportunity later I will know.

@Chris Mason

I've definitely considered the fact that any good deal is not going to be on the market in 3 months. I probably shouldn't even be looking this far ahead if I'm not ready to close on something.

Getting a good idea of the market is probably a plus though. So that I can know a good deal when I see it later.

"Looky Loo" haha window shoppers are really that high of a percentage? Surprising people would waste their own time like that.

@Dave Skow

Ok that makes a lot of sense and is the sort of the answer I was looking for.

@Daniel Lehman

Thanks for all that information! Good to know that you would go with a VA over using the FHA for my first purchase. That is a question I have also been researching. Initially it seemed using the FHA for my first buy and VA for the second seemed like a good idea but with the PMI and other fee's associated your suggestion of going VA is what I will very likely use.

Because the pre-approval is really just the bank saying "yeah looks good unless anything major changes." I will definitely move forward with the pre-approval process. I'm sure it will be a good idea to shop around lenders for a bit as well and see who has the best offers.

@Russell Brazil

Let me remind you of the original question. 

How long is a pre-approval typically good for. 

I don't come home from overseas for over 2 months.

The answer was about 90 days.. 

Why would I get a pre-approval if they last 90 days and I can't even view properties for about 90 days. 

In your theory I'm not a serious buyer because I don't have a pre-approval in my pocket while I'm overseas so you also would not send me information regarding postings. 

Sounds like a pretty solid plan! Why send a few e-mails to make a sale in 3 months let's just think about the now!  Instead lose an able buyer because e-mailing people back takes too much time. 

@Russell Brazil so you're telling me that everyone who browses the MLS on a daily basis has a pre-approval in the pipes constantly and gets another pre-approval every 90 days?