Did you spend up to what you were pre-approved for?

Just wondering if everyone spends up to what they are pre-approved for or stays under a certain amount.

We're hoping to stay around $100,000 less than what we're pre-approved for. I can see how people can get easily overwhelmed and taking on more than they can handle. After we found out the number, for a minute DH and I were looking above what our original price range was then started breaking down the monthly costs. We would rather live more comfortably within a budget we know we could afford.

Re: Did you spend up to what you were pre-approved for?

we were preapproved for 650k and mtg wound up being 450k.

Re: Did you spend up to what you were pre-approved for?

Nooooo. We were preapproved for $900k and the house we bought was a little over half of that.

Re: Did you spend up to what you were pre-approved for?

We were approved for almost double of what we bought.

Re: Did you spend up to what you were pre-approved for?

depends on which of my pre-approval letters you look at

We are pre-approved for a crazy amount so I had a few different letters sent to us that we can use depending on the price of house we may bid on. I wouldn't want to show that we were pre-approved for way more than what we are offering.

Re: Did you spend up to what you were pre-approved for?

I was approved for $150K more than the house we got. I would have spent the full amount if it was the right house as we knew we could afford it. But it works out much better now.

Re: Did you spend up to what you were pre-approved for?

We were approved for more than 100k than what our house was. But I also asked them to put a smaller amount on our approval so the owners of houses wouldn't think that I was willing to spend a lot. So we asked that the approval be only 10k over the asking price.

Re: Did you spend up to what you were pre-approved for?

We will be borrowing less than what we were preapproved for.

Re: Did you spend up to what you were pre-approved for?

Re: Did you spend up to what you were pre-approved for?

We spent a little more than half than what we were preapproved for, which worked out great, given that I later decided to change careers from corporate law (well, first I went part-time, then switched). We knew that could be in the cards, and we didn't want to be house poor. Plus, we got everything we really needed in the home we bought.

I would recommend looking not at the total amount you are preapproved for (or the overall price of the home), but rather the monthly payment you can comfortably afford (with taxes, insurance, etc.). Then, work backwards from there to figure out what price range to look in.

And if it's significantly lower than your preapproval ceiling, then have your bank give you a letter saying you are preapproved up to the lower amount of your price range (sellers and listing agents don't need to know that you can afford more - that can obviously hurt you in negotiating your price!).

Re: Did you spend up to what you were pre-approved for?

We were pre-approved for a $500,000 mortgage. We mortgaged $375,000.

Re: Did you spend up to what you were pre-approved for?

Re: Did you spend up to what you were pre-approved for?

Nope!

Re: Did you spend up to what you were pre-approved for?

I think ended up using about 1/2 of what we were approved for. I could not imagine using the full amount!!!!

Re: Did you spend up to what you were pre-approved for?

Definitely not. We were pre-approved for significantly more than our mortgage. The thought of supporting a mortgage of that size is ridiculous given our income and current lifestyle.

Re: Did you spend up to what you were pre-approved for?

noooo we spent just about $150k less then what we were pre-approved for

if we spent that, we would have only been able to afford our mortgage payment and probably nothing else. which angered me because how can they leave you like that? what If I didn't know any better

Re: Did you spend up to what you were pre-approved for?

Ok, I was just wondering what everyone does. On house hunters and property virgins the REA are always pushing for them to spend everything! And most of the time they do. Good to know I'm not alone on not doing that.

Re: Did you spend up to what you were pre-approved for?

To be honest, we told the guy what our max budget was and he gave us a letter for that amount(we had a low budget) I didn't want to develop an unrealistic dream.

Re: Did you spend up to what you were pre-approved for?

Re: Did you spend up to what you were pre-approved for?

we spent about 20 K less than our pre approval

Re: Did you spend up to what you were pre-approved for?

No way! I think we were approved for 250k more than we paid.

Re: Did you spend up to what you were pre-approved for?

We spent 200K less than what we were approved for. If we had spent what we were approved for, we would probably be house poor or close to it.

Message edited 5/4/2011 7:26:18 PM.

Re: Did you spend up to what you were pre-approved for?

No way!

Re: Did you spend up to what you were pre-approved for?

No, when we were buying (2007) they were way over approving, we were approved for way more than we would be comfortable with.

With the changes in the economy, I don't know if they've gotten more conservative with their approval amounts.

Re: Did you spend up to what you were pre-approved for?

No, less.