Whom should we approach for pre-approval?

[Hector]

We started home buying process. We think it might that months OR even years based on what we are seeing and our budget.
Talked to an agent, and he gave us a reference of local lender for pre-approval. Wells Fargo is our primary banker.
From what I read, when you put an offer, they consider you a serious buyer if you are pre approved. I also read that people often shop around after the offer is accepted.
What do you recommend?

Edit:
dsmil mentioned they got pre-approved by https://www.goodmortgage.com/ and there was no hard inquiry. I will inquire there to see if they are still doing pre-approval without hard inquiry.
I didn't know that there is an option of getting pre-approval without company doing hard inquiry. Whom can we go to for pre-approval who does not do hard inquiry?

[bloom2708]

I would wait until you are closer to the down payment and know you are in the ballpark before getting pre-approval.

If you want to get an idea, then your local bank is a good place to start. Note that you will likely get approved for an amount that may far exceed what you should spend in order to meet your saving/investing goals.

You could ask questions like:

1. What are the various fees we will pay?
2. Will you keep my loan or sell it?
3. How long can I lock in a rate?

For one mortgage we used our local bank. Fees were OK. They are one of the few banks that do not sell your mortgage. That was a selling point for seeing the balance and making extra payments.

For another mortgage we use ING Direct (Capitol One 360 now). They were running a promotion with $x off closing costs. The whole loan ended up costing less than $500 and their rate was very good.

It is a great time to clean up debts like student loans and cars before buying a house. Houses are much more expensive than the payment. There is always something to fix, upgrade, update, add on, tweak, adjust, improve, extend....well..you get my point.

Good luck!

[exodusNH]

We started home buying process. We think it might that months OR even years based on what we are seeing and our budget.
Talked to an agent, and he gave us a reference of local lender for pre-approval. Wells Fargo is our primary banker.
From what I read, when you put an offer, they consider you a serious buyer if you are pre approved. I also read that people often shop around after the offer is accepted.
What do you recommend?

Preapprovals don't last forever. Unless you're less than 90 days out, there's no point.

I don't know how old you are, but I'd consider renting until you're sure you're going to be in a place for 5-10 years. Not owning a home gives you a lot more flexibility. There are certainly good reasons for owning one, but there are a lot of expenses you don't think about and never recoup. And they can act as an anchor if your job/life situation changes.

I bought in the peak of 2005. My home is only now getting close to what I paid for it nearly 16 years ago.

[Hector]

I would wait until you are closer to the down payment and know you are in the ballpark before getting pre-approval.

If you want to get an idea, then your local bank is a good place to start. Note that you will likely get approved for an amount that may far exceed what you should spend in order to meet your saving/investing goals.

You could ask questions like:

1. What are the various fees we will pay?
2. Will you keep my loan or sell it?
3. How long can I lock in a rate?

For one mortgage we used our local bank. Fees were OK. They are one of the few banks that do not sell your mortgage. That was a selling point for seeing the balance and making extra payments.

For another mortgage we use ING Direct (Capitol One 360 now). They were running a promotion with $x off closing costs. The whole loan ended up costing less than $500 and their rate was very good.

It is a great time to clean up debts like student loans and cars before buying a house. Houses are much more expensive than the payment. There is always something to fix, upgrade, update, add on, tweak, adjust, improve, extend....well..you get my point.

Good luck!

Thanks!
We have 20% down payment for the house budget we have set up. We have no debts.
We have been browsing on Redfin and so far we have seen only 2 houses in our price range.
For one, by the time we reached out broker, offer was already accepted on that house.
For another, we decided not to checkout house after seeing inspection report.
That is why I say it might be months OR years.

[Hector]

We started home buying process. We think it might that months OR even years based on what we are seeing and our budget.
Talked to an agent, and he gave us a reference of local lender for pre-approval. Wells Fargo is our primary banker.
From what I read, when you put an offer, they consider you a serious buyer if you are pre approved. I also read that people often shop around after the offer is accepted.
What do you recommend?

Preapprovals don't last forever. Unless you're less than 90 days out, there's no point.

I don't know how old you are, but I'd consider renting until you're sure you're going to be in a place for 5-10 years. Not owning a home gives you a lot more flexibility. There are certainly good reasons for owning one, but there are a lot of expenses you don't think about and never recoup. And they can act as an anchor if your job/life situation changes.

I bought in the peak of 2005. My home is only now getting close to what I paid for it nearly 16 years ago.

I understand that pre-approval don't last forever. We saw a listing this weekend that we were interested in. We made an appointment to go check it out on Monday. Seller was going to review offers on Tuesday. So if we would have made an offer on Monday, there were chances that our offer would not be considered serious. Seems like it would have been helpful if we were approved in that situation. After looking at inspection report, we decided not to tour the place. So that saga ended there.

We are in late 30s/early 40s. If we buy a house, we will buy if thinking we will be in that place forever.

[dsmil]

Yes, you'll want to be pre-approved when submitting an offer but the pre-approval has nothing to do with who you'll ultimately choose. I would just go with a company that won't run a hard inquiry and has a quick and easy process. When we found a house that we wanted to submit an offer on, we found an online lender (goodmortgage.com) who I believe pre-approved us later that day and didn't run a hard credit check. Once your offer is accepted, you can then shop around to find the best deal.

[Hector]

Yes, you'll want to be pre-approved when submitting an offer but the pre-approval has nothing to do with who you'll ultimately choose. I would just go with a company that won't run a hard inquiry and has a quick and easy process. When we found a house that we wanted to submit an offer on, we found an online lender (goodmortgage.com) who I believe pre-approved us later that day and didn't run a hard credit check. Once your offer is accepted, you can then shop around to find the best deal.

Thanks. I will reach out to https://www.goodmortgage.com/ to see if they are doing pre-approval without a hard credit check.