Advice to potential home buyers from Countrywide Mortgage: Get pre-approved for a loan before you go out house hunting. Pre-approval means you've been to a lender who has looked at your financial information and agreed to a specific, maximum mortgage amount that you can qualify for. The lender will give you a written commitment that you can show to real estate agents and home sellers.
Countrywide's Joe Anderson says: "Many get caught up in the emotion of buying a home and forget to arm themselves with the information they need to make a large purchase. Before looking at a single house, prospective buyers should talk with a mortgage lender and get pre-approved."
Before going to a lender, you might want to play with the numbers yourself. You can find good mortgage calculators online at www.hsh.com . The site also has links to a number of lenders who show their current interest rates online for various types of mortgages.
