Home Loan

Today I went to Bank of America online to check out their mortgage offer. Well I saw that you could get pre-approved for a home loan in 10 minutes.. so I filled out the few pages and hit send. About three minutes pass and I get a page saying you have been pre-approved.. I couldn't believe how easy it was. There was a number to call to confirm all this so I called because I wanted to know about locking in the rate and had a few other questions. Well come to find out that the online thing wasn't really official. It was more of a preliminary pre-qualifying thing. She asked if I wanted to go ahead and send this info to the under writers and get a real pre-approval, it would cost $50 but I thought it was worth it so I spent about an hour and a half on the phone giving out info and getting really confused. The woman (Regina) was great, it's just a very complicated process. We talked about various options and luckily I had talked with my friend Jeremy who gave a quick lesson in home buying.. in the end I got a really great 30 year fixed deal. The current rate is 4.85 with no points but they rate can vary as they won't lock it until we put a bid in for a house and start escrow. So we are now officially pre-approved for a home loan. I qualified for a little bit more then what we wanted to spend. The approval is for 90 days so that means Harry and I have three months to find a home or will have to do the pre-approval process again.

Now the fun begins by looking for a home.. I'll keep you posted.