Should I give my realtor my preapproval letter.?

Your real estate agent is not a mind reader. If your real estate agent has no idea as to the amount you are approved by a mortgage lender to purchase a house, they would not be able to show you houses you are able to purchase.

It is not necessary to provide your real estate agent with a copy of your pre-approval letter, however, you should inform the real estate agent of the amount you were pre-approved for or show the your pre-approval letter.

What you have heard from the shade tree real estate agents and mortgage lenders, should be thrown out the window with the dirty water. The individuals that are giving you this erroneous information have no idea as to what they are speaking.

The real estate agent you select to show you houses, would not show you houses without being pre-approved. They do not want to waste their and your time showing you houses valued at $500k when you are only pre-approved for $250k to purchase a house.

I hope this has been of some benefit to you, good luck.

'FIGHT ON"

What you can afford and what you are willing to pay are not the same thing. If you have a realtor pushing you to spend more than you want to, then you need to find a new realtor.

Yes you should. The realtor needs to know what you can afford so he shows you properties in your price range. If you are not willing to pay as much as you are preapproved for then just tell them (ie "Even though I am preapproved for $200K I am only willing to spend $180K for a house, don't show me anything that I wont able to buy for that price or less").

I understand what you were told. Some realtors may just take the preapproval price and go looking for anything at that price ignoring what you'd like to pay. If this happens just go get a different realtor.

Yes, of course. He's not a mind reader. Duh.

Yes your Realtor should have it. When you make an offer quite often the mortgage broker will modify it to show the price of the home you're making an offer on. That way if you're approved for $400,000 but only spending $350,000 you're not revealing your maximum price.

The realtor needs it since most sellers agents these days are requiring it before they will accept your offer. Your agent has to give it to the sellers agent. Just don't allow your agent to push you into buying more than you want to pay.

Whoever told you that is an idiot...

Who told you that? Real estate professionals must know your ceiling affordability before they can begin to look for property for you.

If you came to me, I would not even consider that letter until you had sat down with me and I had put you through my own qualifying calculations. If the pre-approval was for more than what I came up with, I would go with my numbers. Pre-approvals are not approvals, and they are not always very thorough.

One other thing. Stop using 'realtor' to mean any person that sells real estate.It is not a word. Realtor is a trademark. When you see it in print advertising, it is ALWAYS followed by the R in a circle, for Registered Trademark. The only person who may call themselves a Realtor is the owner of a brokerage who is a member of the trade association National Association of Realtors. Any salesperson or broker that works 'under' them is a Realtor Associate.

Well they need to know ur budget.

How can he find you a property if he does not know how much you are spending?