The real estate industry has created many phenomenon's and one of them happens to be the mortgage pre-qualification letter.
With so much at stake for seller's it is hard for me to report that my real estate marketing advise this week is that mortgage pre-qualification letters are not worth the waste of a good piece of paper and should be totally disregarded.
Anyone's cousin or any lending institution can simply rush what Realtors refer to as a "pre-qual letter" out the door to a well meaning (or otherwise) buyer to give a seller some comfort.
These letters are meant to put the seller at ease that the buyer's finances look favorable for a mortgage loan.
Sellers do not be deceived because pre-qualification letters are completely meaningless! Most lenders simply take some very sketchy information from the buyer and then spit a letter that the buyer appears to be qualified for a mortgage.
But if you take the time to read the fine print you shall see that the lender includes all sorts of language cautioning the reader that the letter is in fact too premature for them to guarantee that the buyer will in fact ever qualify for a loan now or at a later date.
Pre-qualification letters are not based on any confirmed information, they are a dime a dozen and are at best should be considered smoke and mirrors.
What a seller needs in order to feel good about the chances of any given buyer's ability to get financed is an actual mortgage commitment.
A seller needs to see and review the commitment itself.
Does the commitment contain conditions or is it an unconditional commitment.
An unconditional commitment is what a seller desires and until one is received a seller needs to limit the amount of time that they are willing to take their property off the market for.