Do I need to be pre approved to put a bid in on a house?

You have to stay on the loan you are approved of. BUT, if you have a lot of reserve, say, half of the amount of the house you are buying, then you can negotiate that to the seller. They have to see the money though, you have to give them the bank account so that they can ask the bank if there's really money on your account.

If you are going to lie to them, and pass your lie, then you are heading to another foreclosure. That is the reason why we have all these humongous numbers of houses that is foreclosed now. People are aiming to high when they can't even shoot. You know what I mean?

The fact is, you will not see the problem you are heading to, if you will get help bidding the house that you really like even though it is outside your budget, until you cannot pay the monthly dues anymore.

Good luck to you though.

No, you can put in, or your real estate agent can put in the bid, and you do not need pre-approval. However, it would be written in the contract that if the bid is accepted, then it would be based on loan approval, appraisal values, inspection reports, and such.

It's always a great idea though to be pre-approved before hand to make sure you know how much house you can afford. For if your bid of $150,000 is accepted, and you are only pre-approved for $125,000, the difference plus other associated costs will come directly out of your pocket. Make sure you can afford it before wasting anyone's time and efforts.

You don't need to be, but you're paving a road with land mines. Many things can go wrong in the loan process.

A good realtor wouldn't waste his/her time with your offer because they know its very likely that you won't get the loan. Unless of course you can make up the difference between your pre-approved amount and sale price with good 'ol cash. If you had this type of cash, you would have disclosed it in the original approval process and it would have already been considered in your pre-approved amount.

Hope this helps :-)

If you are pre-approved for $200,000 and bid on a $250,000 house, you better have $50,000 plus closing costs in the bank. If I were a seller in this case, I would ask for $50,000 earnest money to be put in escrow until closing.

The bank can up your pre-approval but only if the house is actually

worth the extra $$$. If you are only talking about a few thousand

there should be no problem, but if it's 20k and up I'd be talking to

my lender first. The lender will not approve you for more $$$ if

the appraisal of the house is not high enough.

Why on earth would you place an offer on a house for an amount greater than that for which you are approved (unless you have the difference in cash) ? You're wasting your own time, as well as that of the sellers.

It shouldn't be too hard to get a pre-approval letter specific to the amount you are bidding on, as long as it isn't too much higher.

Then you should get the amount you are approved for increased. Realtors will often recommend to the seller that they not accept an offer from someone who is not at least approved for the amount they will need to borrow.

depends on the seller