Down Payment Articles & Advice

How to Qualify a Buyer

Does your customer or client need to be pre-qualified? I am a licensed Real Estate broker and Loan officer and here is how I did it before becoming a loan officer. No matter the state; math is still math. However, an agent can only pre-qualify a person to an extent. That credit report is a BIG must. The best thing to do is refer the buyer to a lender. If you are lucky you have an in house lender. Bless your heart.
I have found that a typical person can qualify for a home that is approximately 2 1/2 times their yearly income before taxes (include spouses yearly gross income if any).
Depending on the debt to income Ratio's of 28% or 36% and some Refinances of 45 % along with the amount of the down payment and the amount of the property you are buying or refinancing, will be the determining factor in your ability to purchase. (not to mention credit reports) you should have a beacon score of at least 675 to even qualify for a sub prime loan. Obviously higher is better. unless were talking about a different kind of scoring system, (which is a whole other article).
Qualifying ratios are:
28%= total monthly debts
36%= living expenses + long term debts.
A prudent agent will Pre-qualify a prospective buyer as soon as possible and even before showing that possible buyer properties. Any agent that does not get a pre-qual may find out later that they have not acted in the best interest of the buyer or the seller.
Now past all that. The agent has two things that he may choose from.
1. Get the financial information from the buyer them selves to do the appropriate income/expense analysis. Minus the Credit Report. (which is never a good thing)
OR
2. Refer the buyer to a lender.
The last solution is always the best. It can help to speed up the loan process, also it can help you better decide on what contingencies to present an offer to the seller and what properties the buyer should be looking at.
Another benefit to Pre-Qualifying, is that you can weed out the serious buyers from the casual lookers. although you should be nice to the casual lookers and handle them with care, , they could come back later as pre-qualified buyers. but until then do not waste al lot of your time on them.
A good way to handle this is to talk to them about what they would like, ask how interested they are and tell them that your office likes to have pre-quals before you show properties. On the other hand, if they insist, try to schedule a time that you are the least busiest to show them a property.
You may say, "Yeah but they will go some where else, and someone else, will show it to them."
True. And if they still are not pre qualified then someone else can waste their time and you can concentrate on the real buyers.
I have had both instances happen to me. Not withstanding the fact that I have learned, quantity of time spent with a person does not reap as many benefits as the quality of time spent with the right people. And saving time by not wasting it allows for more time with real customers with real money.
You can still be nice polite and give courtesy to everyone, You just have to require the same policy for everyone.

Thanks for reading. I hope the articles I write help all who read them and make a decision as to whether they like them or not. Most of all I hope it helps you to make up your mind as to the direction you need to go.
Author
Kawana Barnard

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Professional Real Estate Broker/Licensed Loan Officer Entrepreneur/Writer

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