Before you jump into the Anaheim, California real estate market and start looking at houses, you need to step back and take stock of your purchasing power. If you recently owned a home for sale in Rosedale, an expensive area of Toronto, you'll probably have no trouble getting a mortgage, but what about the rest of us? One term you'll see often as a potential home buyer is "pre-qualification." What advantages are there to pre-qualifying for a mortgage, and what does it even mean? We'll tell you all about it in our article on pre-qualification advantages.

Pre-qualified and pre-approved are the same thing. You'll probably see both floating around if you're looking at buying new homes in Georgetown, Ontario. When you're pre-approved for a mortgage, the bank is essentially giving you the tentative nod that they'll fund your home purchase without actually knowing the final purchase price of the house.

The most obvious benefit in getting pre-approved for a mortgage is that you'll have the advantage over other home buyers when it comes to a bidding war. You have your finances lined up already, so you're a much more solid bet than someone who doesn't. Since you're already approved, it will also take you less time to get your finances together, so you can offer a quicker closing on Toronto real estate for sale than the competition can. These factors will make you much more attractive to the seller and could help you win the home even if your offer isn't technically the highest.

Getting pre-approved for your mortgage before you go looking for the house will also confirm that you can actually afford the amount of house that you think you can afford. The bank has to look at your documentation before they give you even a tentative nod, so if you try to overreach they'll slap you down. It's much better to have this happen while your house purchase is still hypothetical, and not while your perfect piece of Mississauga real estate is hanging in the balance, since a rejection at that late stage can lose you the house.

Applying for pre-approval is fast and easy - much easier and faster than applying for final approval outright. For a final approval, the bank takes days or weeks and charges you several hundred in fees. For a pre-approval, bank staff can take a look at your papers in a few hours or days and probably won't charge you for anything other than the $20 or so for pulling your credit report. Then when you come back with your Spokane, Washington homes for sale picked out you have a better chance of final approval, saving you money over the scatter-shot final approval method.