Financing

When you're buying a home and you need to borrow money from a bank, you will need to obtain a mortgage.  Before doing so, you should find out how much you are comfortably willing to spend and how much money a bank is willing to loan you. The best place to start is to talk to a mortgage lender and get yourself pre-approved.

Anyone can call a bank and tell them they want to buy a house. They may ask you a couple questions, like do you have a job? Or do you have any money to put down? If you answer yes, they may tell you that you are pre-qualified to apply. This is not what needs to get done. You'll want to get yourself pre-"Approved"

A pre-approval is when the bank starts asking you more detailed questions, like how long you have been employed, what is your salary, do you have any debt, etc. They will likely ask for copies of 2 years of tax returns, 2 months bank statements and your last 2 paycheck stubs. And, they will want to run your credit. After that, if everything looks good, they will issue a "Pre-Approval" letter and it will specifically state that the decision was based off a review of your credit, debt, income and assets.