today we got an unofficial pre approval for a mortgage loan! i say ‘unofficial’ because we still have to send the remaining documents of the account from which we will draw down payment monies to the lender. the process began this past friday afternoon with a call from the prospective lending company. exchanges of emails and phone conversations led us to today’s outcome – PRE APPROVAL. but not without numerous digging for verified documents such as employer paystubs, W-2 forms, ID copies, and account statements. it was a tedious task to gather all of the information and to digitize (PDF’s are one of the great things that have come about since the invention of the world wide web) it to send to the lender for their analysis – essentially a risk assessment of us to see if we are a party who they can trust to collect the money they ‘lend’ us.

albeit the tedious and sometimes irritating back and forth nature (i had to resend our account information 3 times before we got it in the format the lender’s underwriters would accept), i am HAPPY to be going through this process. i know that the crisis we are in was a direct result, among other factors, of lenders not enforcing the need for true and verified documents to accurately see if the prospective buyer can really afford the home they have decided to purchase. the sad thing is that people who are going through this process are feeling the crunch on getting a loan. it is very difficult at this moment to secure a long and we are very fortunate to have this letter.

next step is to find our home. we have several in mind and are now trying to figure out how much we want to spend. stay tuned to the next installation…hopefully by then we will be announcing our new home!