Melissa Schwartz

The very first step in purchasing a home is to get pre-qualified for a mortgage. You want to do this even before starting to look at homes. Once you are pre-qualified
the next step is pre-approval. Once you are pre-approved it's time to go looking for a house. When you go looking for a home and find the one you want to buy you can
make the offer with confidence that your loan will be approved.

What does "Get Pre Qualified" mean?
There are many steps you need to take when shopping for your new home. One of the most important steps in the home buying process is to get pre-qualified. Getting pre-qualified will give you an approximate idea of what you can afford to buy based on your credit, income, and assets. During your pre-qualification consultation you may realize that you qualify for more then you expect or what you qualify for may be more than you want to you pay monthly. You may also realize that you do not qualify for as much as you thought. One of the worst things you can do to yourself is look for homes that you fall in love with to discover you can't afford that home.

Pick YOUR Loan Officer
To get Pre-Qualified, you will need to speak to a mortgage loan officer. Since getting a mortgage is a one of the most important financial decision you will make, you need to make sure that you are working with someone you can trust.

What Questions to Ask When Shopping for YOUR loan for a list of questions to ask your potential loan officer. This list of questions will to help you find out if they are qualified to help you and give you a sense of whether this is someone you want to help you get a mortgage.

What is the process and benefits of getting Pre Qualified?
Getting Pre-Qualified will take about 10 - 15 Minutes depending on the details of your situation. Once you are pre-qualified you will know:

• Approximate monthly house payment you qualify for.
• Approximate price range of the home you can purchase.
• How much down payment you will need or want to put down.
• Approximate amount of closing costs needed to purchase in your price range.
• Information on different loan programs that will best fit your needs and desires.
• What to expect about the mortgage process once you are under contract for your new home.

When you find the loan officer to pre-qualify you make sure you also discuss some of the following items if they apply to you:

• Your time frame for purchasing a home.
• Your future plans for buying additional properties, moving up or possible refinance.
• Your short and long term housing/mortgage financial goals.
• Do you already have a house in mind? Different areas have different mortgage programs available.
• How important is the interest rate versus saving money upfront?

Why should you get Pre-Approved for a Mortgage?
Once you have been pre-qualified, there is a tendency to go out immediately start looking for a home. While this is not bad, it is a little premature. To be absolutely sure you should get pre-approved.


Getting pre-approved takes the pre-qualification a little further. When getting pre-approved you will actually provide the supporting documents like your pay stubs, W-2's, and asset statements like your bank statements or retirement account statements. If your credit has not yet been reviewed your loan officer will be doing it during this step. At this point; you may even be asked to sign a full loan application and any additional paperwork necessary to get your file underwritten.

Automated Underwriting Approval
During this step, your loan officer will verify all of the information that you gave them during the pre-qualification period. They will then submit your personal financial and credit information to the automated underwriting system to determine if you can get pre-approved for the mortgage. At this point, unless you have a property picked out, the loan officer will most likely use a sales price that matches the payment level you are comfortable with.

The automated underwriting system used by most lenders will analyze your loan application and credit report to give a pre-approval decision. Regardless of the decision, you will receive a list of recommendations for what is needed to obtain your final mortgage decision.

Additional Tips about Your Pre-Approval
The pre-approval process is also a time when you will have an opportunity to review features and benefits of different loan programs that you may qualify for and discuss these options with your loan officer to determine which loan best suits your home buying needs.

Once you are pre-approved and find the home you would like to make an offer on, your loan officer will supply you with a pre-approval letter. This letter should accompany the sales offer and tells the seller that you are qualified to buy their home.

Quite often experienced and knowledgeable real estate agents will not show houses to buyers that have not been Pre-Approved. It makes perfect sense for the agent to not waste time showing houses to you that you may not be able to purchase and running the risk of disappointing you and the sellers. The best negotiating tool you can have financially is a pre-approval letter and a full understanding of the expenses involved in purchasing a particular home.

What Question to ask When Looking for a Loan Officer

A loan officer can be very useful in helping you to understand the different loan products on the market and helping you apply for a loan that fits your particular needs and wants.

Find an Experienced Loan Officer

Not all loan officers are created equal. Some are in the business to make money and have little to no experience - you want to avoid inexperienced loan officers - especially in these times when qualifying and getting a mortgage is a lot more difficult than it has ever been. Experienced loan officers who are in the business as a career and know what they are doing can make all the difference!

How will a lender help me get the right mortgage?

So, how do you find the right person to help you with one of the biggest decisions you will ever make? Below is a list of basic questions you can ask to help you determine which loan officer you pick to assist you in this process.

• Is there a particular type of loan product in which you specialize?
• How will you go about assisting me in finding a loan that will best fit my needs and situation?
• Are there any other Real Estate Professionals, such as a REALTOR or Closing Attorney, which you work with or recommend that I speak to during this process?
• How long have you been a mortgage lender?
• How many loans have you closed in the last 24 months?
• Do you have an in-house processing and underwriting?

What are Your Mortgage Qualifications?

Because of the cyclical nature of the mortgage and real estate business, loan officers come and go. Many states in the U.S. do not require loan officers to be licensed. Although this is changing, the mortgage industry has a very long way to go to catch up to Insurance Agents, Real Estate Agents, and Attorneys. All of these professions need licenses. With this in mind, the length of time someone has spent working in the business might not be the primary indication of the loan officer's abilities. You want to ask a few questions to decide if they know enough to help you.

• What training do you have?
• What other background or experience do you have that is relevant to working as a loan officer?
• Is there another area of expertise or piece of background information you have (such as work in another financial - world application) that gives you unique insight?

How Available Will You be - How Will We Communicate?

As anyone who has been in any sort of relationships knows all too well, communication is KEY! In working with a loan officer, it is important to state from the beginning what your expectations are regarding communication, availability and responsibilities. You also need to find out what the loan officer expects from you in regards to communication, availability and responsibilities.

• How often should I expect to receive updates on my loan status from you or your office?
• What are your normal hours of operation?
• In the event that I need to reach you during off-hours, is it okay to contact you? Is there a different phone number or emails address to use?
• Do you have any upcoming business travel or vacation plans that I should know about? Is there any reason you can foresee not being available between now and closing?
• Will you be responsible for staying in touch with any involved agents and parties who are involved with the transaction?

It is important to pay attention not only to what answers the loan officer gives, but how the questions are answered. Is he or she patient and making sure you understanding all the answers? Do you feel comfortable with this person? Compatibility is key, so make sure you trust your instincts!

For more information or to get pre-qualified contact Melissa Schwartz at Bradford Mortgage NewBridge Bank.

I have this good friend who is on a mission! Recently she had enough and decided to take on Raleigh and all the litterbugs by herself. Below is her 1st blog post explaining "The Birth of TrashFairy". I've been following her blog and I am amazed at her passion and work. In just a few short months she has really cleaned up allot! With that being said, I have decided I need to share her websites and help her get noticed. I also think it would be amazing if 1. we can replace her red wagon that someone stole from her while she was out cleaning up trash 2. get her a logo, 3. help raise money to fund what she is doing for our homes!

Thank you TrashFairy! You are an amazing women!

The TrashFairy can be found at:
www.ProudEarth.org
on the ProudEarth.org Fan page

2-20-10

The Birth of TrashFairy

Have you ever been driving down the road and seen litter in the gutter? Have you ever wondered about the person who left it there and their thoughts just before they opened their hand and let the trash fall away from their grip?

Every day on my way to work I see trash strewn about the roads, sidewalks, parking lots and lawns that I pass. And when I arrive at work, I see more trash ... around the apartment community where I work. And while I don't stop in the middle of traffic to chase down a stray grocery bag, I do pick up trash every day at work. So does my maintenance staff. (One of the grossest things I've picked up to date were the dirty diapers that one woman used to throw into the woods behind her apartment.) And somehow, every day when we get to work, there is more trash on the ground.

I can believe that a little of this trash arrives at the community by way of the wind, like the occasional chuck that makes its way to the yard at my house. But I find it difficult to believe that the large majority ends up here by that route. This means that people are throwing trash on the ground right outside their own front door.

If so many people are willing to litter right next to their own homes, how in the world can we hope to stop them from chucking crap out the windows of cars on the highway?

Naively, I got the idea that I could just ask them to knock it off. So I wrote a letter to all the residents of my community. I very nicely asked them to be aware of trash "accidentally" falling from their vehicles or blowing away from them.

And they listened and never threw trash on the ground again, and everyone lived happily ever after. The End.

Yeah, right. Actually, no one seemed to notice the letters. And no one seemed to think it was a big deal to drop fast food wrappers out their car door onto the parking lots. So the staff kept picking up their trash. (Thankfully, I never picked up any of those letters from the ground.)

One day I arrived at work to find beer cans, bottles, cigarette butts and those big red plastic tumblers covering the grass and spanning the length of an entire building near the rental office. I started knocking on doors and quickly found out who'd had a big messy party the night before. As I headed to that door, my head spun with all the things I wanted to say to those residents, three young roommates (two guys and a girl). But when I arrived, what came out was as follows:

"The TrashFairy doesn't work here. You have until noon to clean up every piece of trash around this entire building, whether you personally put it down or not. At noon I will begin picking up trash, and I will charge you a dollar for every piece that I have to clean up."

Then I turned and headed to the rental office.

To my great surprise, they threw on their clothes, grabbed some bags and jumped to it! When they were finished, they came and asked me to inspect their work to make sure it was clean enough to keep them from incurring charges on their account. It was. I was truly amazed.

I hoped that part of the reason they'd rushed to it so quickly was because of the guilt of seeing a person who hadn't put down any trash work to clean it up. But it was probably 100% the threat to their wallet. Which makes me think that the only reason fines for littering don't actually prevent litter is that it's nearly impossible to catch someone in the act.

Since the day of the red tumblers, I've been trying to figure out ways to get people to stop littering. How to get people to clean up the litter that is already on the ground. And wondering what goes through the head of the person who rolls down their window and tosses out an empty styrofoam cup, expecting it to find its own way to the dump.

My mission is to help clean up the city in which I live and convince others to do the same. My hope is that every citizen will pick up one piece of trash after reading this. And that once a person picks up someone else's trash, they'll be less likely to throw down their own.

I am TrashFairy. And TrashFairy does work here.

http://coolchicksactivegear.wordpress.com/2010/04/20/project-believe/#comment-79

project-believe...

Posted in Cool! by coolchicksactivegear on April 20, 2010

It's amazing how many negative things we tell ourselves. I can't do that! I'm too clumsy to participate in sports! I wish I could, but I don't think I could do it! I'm not smart enough! I'm too scared! Those thoughts roll around in our heads until we are truly convinced that we're too weak, too afraid, too slow, too fat... or too whatever to pursue our dreams or accomplish our goals.

One of the things I had to do to overcome all that was to start some positive messages in my head. I started telling myself to believe it! To believe that my body was stronger than I thought it was... to believe that I could do things I thought otherwise impossible. It's not easy and I still have to work at it to keep the negative thoughts out, but it does work. You can believe it...

I was recently inspired by another positive message campaign, Operation Beautiful. I love this idea! The only thing is that while I want to be beautiful, I'd rather be strong... smart... passionate. So I started my own campaign - project *believe*

I've started leaving "believe" messages in random locations for other women to find them... in library books, on mirrors in public places, on lockers at the gym, etc. I would love for everyone to believe in themselves and I think sometimes an anonymous nudge helps!

Please join me in promoting this campaign for positive messages! All you need is a post-it note, a pen, and an open heart to send positive thoughts out to other women! Be sure to include this website address so they can be inspired by other notes on the site!

If you find one or post one, I'd love for you to send me an e-mail at amanda@coolchicksactivegear.com with a photograph of your project *believe* note or a description of your experience, and I'll post it on the website!