Questions people actually ask

You do not need to be, but looking without one is how people waste weekends. A pre-approval tells you what price range is real, and in a competitive market most listing agents will not present an offer without one. It also surfaces problems while there is still time to fix them — a collection account you did not know about, an employment gap that needs explaining. Finding that out in week one is very different from finding it out three days before closing.

A pre-qualification is a rough estimate based on what you told someone, often generated in under a minute with no verification. A pre-approval means your income and assets were actually reviewed, your credit was pulled, and the file went through automated underwriting. Listing agents know the difference. I only issue the second kind.

No. Edge Home Finance, LLC is a licensed mortgage broker, not a bank, a direct lender, or a creditor. Loans are placed with wholesale lending partners who underwrite and fund them. The practical benefit is that one set of documents can be shopped to several lenders instead of getting a single yes or no.

Because any rate published on a website is a number for somebody else. What you would actually be offered depends on your credit, the property, the loan size, the program, and market conditions on the day you lock. Federal advertising rules also require a long list of accompanying disclosures whenever a specific rate, payment or down-payment figure appears, and sites that skirt those rules tend to do it with fine print. It is cleaner to publish none and give you a real quote instead. Contact me for a personalized quote.

Less than most people assume, and it varies a lot by program. Low down-payment options are available, and eligible Veterans and USDA-area buyers often need very little. Beyond the down payment you should plan for closing costs, an appraisal, prepaid taxes and insurance, and something left over afterward. Send me your situation and I will give you a real number for your scenario rather than a rule of thumb.

It is a wrinkle, not a wall. The usual issue is that the deductions that lower your tax bill also lower the income figure an underwriter sees. Sometimes conventional financing still works once we average two years properly and add back depreciation. When it does not, bank statement and 1099 programs use deposits instead of adjusted gross income. Bring twelve to twenty-four months of statements and we will know quickly.

A mortgage credit pull is a hard inquiry, and its effect is typically small and short-lived. Credit scoring models also treat multiple mortgage inquiries inside a short shopping window as a single event, so comparing offers does not multiply the damage. What genuinely hurts is opening new accounts, financing furniture, or running up balances while your loan is in process. Wait until after closing.

From a complete application to closing, a straightforward purchase commonly runs a few weeks. What stretches it out is almost always the same short list: documents arriving in pieces, appraisal scheduling, condo project reviews, and self-employed income that needs a closer look. The single biggest thing you control is sending the full document list at once.

In nineteen of them, yes. I am licensed in Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Florida, Illinois, Indiana, Louisiana, Michigan, Missouri, North Carolina, Ohio, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Virginia and Wisconsin. Edge Home Finance, LLC is licensed in all U.S. states and the District of Columbia except New York, and does not arrange, solicit, or originate loans on property in New York.

For most files: recent pay stubs, the last two years of W-2s or tax returns, two months of bank statements, and a photo ID. Self-employed borrowers add business returns and often a profit and loss statement. Veterans add a Certificate of Eligibility, which I can usually pull for you. I send the full list up front rather than asking for one more thing every few days.

Get a second quote either way. Builder incentives are sometimes worth it and sometimes priced back into the loan, and the only way to tell is to compare two complete loan estimates side by side. Nobody should be offended by that — and if someone is, that itself is information.

You keep my number. Most of my work comes from people calling back years later — to ask whether mortgage insurance can come off, whether a refinance makes sense, or how to finance a second property. Nothing about that conversation obligates you to do anything.