Delaney’s Lender Tip:  Get preapproved with a local lender six months before you are ready to buy to be the most prepared!

Many buyers I work with contact me with just two months or so left on their apartment lease. We complete an application, they immediately start looking for homes, and they close on the new home around the time when their lease ends.

While there’s nothing wrong with this scenario, these homebuyers may be missing out on the benefits of getting preapproved further in advance. Here are just a few of those benefits!

Many buyers qualify comfortably without any problems. However issues can pop up when we review their credit score and look at any late payments, collections, etc. Many times they mention they didn’t know something was on their credit report that was pulling down the score, or they ask me how to get their score higher.

These are issues that can be mitigated by getting preapproved earlier.

While moving is not always planned far in advance, I always recommend buyers to do a preapproval and application around six months prior to house hunting. This allots time for us to tweak any items on the credit report and increase the credit score before going under contract.

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