House for Sale - Financing

One of the biggest holdups to me pursuing selling our house was money. I thought this was all the house we could afford. So one thing Amy, our Realtor did was recommend that we get pre-qualified for a home. I had a couple names, she had a couple names and I began to set up appointments to get the necessary information. With current market conditions, I knew the possibility of a 100% loan was all gone and I needed an idea on what we would need to be able to do.

My meetings with the bigger banks was substantive and helpful, but not in the way it was when I met with a unaffiliated mortgage specialist. We spent at least an hour together and he answered the myriad of questions I threw at him. Knowing quite a bit about the mortgage industry, I was amazed at what I learned and at what options might be available to us.

The big walk away for me, though, was an understanding of what type of house we could afford. Going in to the meeting, I had a certain number in my head that would be the price range of houses we would be in the market for. A number that I thought would be impossible to find a house that we would need for. Walking out, though. I had a much bigger number and that was without adjusting our family budget at all. Sure, I know it sounds like funny math, but the bottom line is that I discovered we could afford much more "house" than I thought going in. And while the number wasn't so big that our options were limitless, it was big enough so that I could begin to see a way that this might actually happen. Praise God for That!