Lenders, not Real Estate Agents, Know Financing Options

Real Estate Mythology 101

Myth # 3: You need a real estate agent to pre-qualify buyers for you.

Reality: Few agents are aware of all the mortgage programs and funding options available to buyers. A mortgage lender is the person best qualified to pre-screen prospective buyers.


Prospective homesellers are often warned (by agents) that they will waste time showing their home to people who can't afford it when selling by owner, or worse, that they will take their home off the market for a month or more for someone who fails to qualify for financing.

Sure, you may show your home to a few prospective buyers that can't afford it, but this could happen just as easily with an agent. As for the risk of taking your home off the market, you can limit this to only 3 - 5 days -- long enough for the buyer to produce a letter of pre-qualification from a lender (as specified in your contract). Or you can choose not to sign a contract with a buyer until they've produced this letter for you. It's really a non-issue.

Many buyers take advantage of pre-qualification and pre-approval services offered by lenders before they start shopping for property. It's a simple matter to ask an interested buyer if they've been
pre-qualified or pre-approved yet.

"I was really impressed with the quality of the buyers that came to us (as a result of our Picket Fence ad). I used to be in the real estate business, and would estimate that 95% of the buyers were qualified to purchase the property. A few were pretty high-powered local business people shopping for family members; I was surprised to see how across-the-board your magazine readership is." -- B.H.

 "We've had a tremendous response. We have four offers on the table at this point, full price and above, all from pre-qualified buyers... so we're pretty happy!" -- Sheila Hoffman

Many things have changed in recent years in real estate, including the introduction of for-sale-by-owner publications and helpful Internet sites, that make it easier for private sale homesellers and buyers to come together. So before you accept something as the truth, look into it a little further. It might just be a myth!