The Ballad of House Buying: Part 3 - Re-Pre-Approval

I got pre-approved for a home loan in March or April of 2008. I went through the process with the bank that houses my checking account, Bank of the Bear.

I would like to say that the process was enjoyable, but as most of my interactions with that bank, it was not. After filling out the paperwork with a loan officer, I didn't hear back from them for over a month.

When I got pre-approved, I immediately did nothing. In fact, pre-approval lasts for four months. I did nothing for so long that my pre-approval expired before I even looked at the first house.

I've been looking at houses since October, but I have not gotten my financing remotely in order. In fact, I hadn't even thought about get re-pre-approved.

Since Bank of the Bear has never been particularly good to me, I decided to go to a mortgage broker by the name of Tracy Van Sickle. I didn't know Tracy, but Lori raved about her on multiple occasions.

I decided I better start this process because I was seriously considering making an offer on the house with the cute backyard, but it is awful hard to do that when you don't know if anybody is going to give you the money to make such a purchase.

Tuesday, January 6, after I completed my shift at the Computer Mine, I called Tracy to start the process. I assumed from my previous experience with Bank of the Bear that the process would last 3-4 weeks.

A long story short: What took over a month for Bank of the Bear to do, Tracy Van Sickle was able to do in under 30 minutes. I was re-pre-approved.

I was now able to make an offer on the house with the cute backyard, if I became so inclined.