We have prequalified for a pretty decent mortgage, but I'm curious: how many of you actually bought homes that were the amount you prequalified for? More, or less? What percentage did you put down?
TracyInQueens
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Re: Purchase at amt. you prequalify for?
When we were first preapproved, I was asked the amount we wanted it for. We'd played around with numbers on those online calculators, and according to those we could have afforded to spend another $30k. We really were not comfortable with that amount.
I think banks preapprove for more than you might be comfortable with. We did the Lending Tree thing, and a mortgage guy called me to follow up. I had put down our monthly take- home instead of what we made pre-tax, and he too said we would qualify for a lot more based on our gross income. But the truth is, we were not comfortable spending any more than we did. And we also figured, if we're not taking that money home we don't have it to spend!
I think you need to think about what you are comfortable with first and take the bank's opinion with a grain of salt.
We also did not buy on LI, otherwise we would have had to spend more than we did.
IrishBride-05
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Re: Purchase at amt. you prequalify for?
We purchased for a lot less than we were prequalified for, but we would have gone to the max. It just happens that the house needs loads of work, so we'll need the cash to put towards that. At least our mortgage payments will always be low, but we won't have anything at all in the bank
blushingbride2003
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Re: Purchase at amt. you prequalify for?
We were preapproved for a lot more than we are borrowing.
LisaW
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Re: Purchase at amt. you prequalify for?
We are looking pretty close to the range we prequalified for...
But, we have very few monthly bills (no cc debt, no student loans, no car payments, etc) so more $$ can go towards our mortgage.
SeptemberBride03
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Re: Purchase at amt. you prequalify for?
I feel like the amount you can get prequalified is always very high. Online we played around on different sites like Bank Rate and we could get prequalified for over a million!! We definitely cannot afford that mortgage or a downpayment on that amt!
When we starting working with our mortgage broker he asked what we wanted and then told us he would prequalify us for 30k more than that just so we had room when we looked. We ended up wanting to bid on something that was 75k more than the original amt we asked for so we called him and he ran the numbers and said no problem and prequalified us for the higher amount.
We went over what we were prequalified for. But only by $10,000.
steph4777
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Re: Purchase at amt. you prequalify for?
We borrowed about half of what we prequalified for. We put about 3% down.
bxgell2
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Re: Purchase at amt. you prequalify for?
We didn't even ask how much we would pre-qualify for. Instead, we told the mortgage broker our max price for a house and they pre-qualified us for that amount exactly, though I'm sure we would have qualified for more. We didn't want to even be tempted to get in over our heads... we ended up putting down 20% but that's because my MIL gave us the down payment (YES, we're VERY thankful!)...
Preshy7
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Re: Purchase at amt. you prequalify for?
we were prequalified for a decent amount but we borrowed about 30% less
cloddy
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Re: Purchase at amt. you prequalify for?
We went over by $50k. We had to call him after we found the house and ask him if he could get us more.
julz33
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Re: Purchase at amt. you prequalify for?
We were prequalified for a lot more.
wintergirl06
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Re: Purchase at amt. you prequalify for?
Thanks for the input, everyone...I just have no idea how we could afford a mortgage payment on that amount. Of course, I guess they prequalify you for an amount thinking that you'll come up with a pretty hefty downpayment. I think we're going to wind up putting about 5-10% down.
HearzBellz
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Re: Purchase at amt. you prequalify for?
We put $15,000 down, which we are getting back at closing. We got a house for $30,000 under what we pre-approved for.
ETA: the $15,000 down payment was not required, b/c we qualified for 103% financing on our mortgage. We put it down as a good faith deposit and to beat out other bidders who were also approved 100%
