Happy New Year and happy first blog post of 2026! At the Goldfinch Factory we’re off and running this year, and we wanted to start the year off focusing on a resolution favorite of mine: buying a home!
For those first-time buyers coming into 2026 with renewed vigor and conviction to find your dream home, read on!
The market is warming up to buyers, and with mortgage rates trending down, this year most certainly could be the year for you to find your home. January tends to be on the slower side, but with the warming months comes a warming housing market.
These colder months in New England are the perfect time to prepare, prepare, prepare!
So before you start scrolling through the listings, you should work on getting your mortgage pre-approval. Boo! I know. Not the fun stuff. But necessary nonetheless! And getting the boring stuff out of the way now will make the scrolling easier and the buying process so much more smoother.
In a competitive market, having your preapproval ready allows you to quickly and easily submit offers on a potential home. (Home sellers don’t care about offers without proof that you can afford the price you’re putting down).
How does one go about getting a mortgage preapproval? The first step is to reach out to a mortgage broker or lending company. There are a lot of great professionals out there ready to help you navigate this sometimes tedious but very, very necessary process.
What will you need for your mortgage preapproval? Lenders’ requirements, of course, will vary, but there are several documents you can virtually always expect from any lender.
Some of the documents you can expect include weekly paystubs, previous W-2s, tax documents from previous years, recent bank statements, and your employment history.
As you can imagine, gathering all these documents can be time-consuming and tedious, especially if you haven’t saved them. We’re fortunate in our digital age to be able to grab most of these online now.
So what do all these documents have to do with buying a home?
Simply put, the preapproval process is a complex equation factoring in your income, your savings, your debts and spending habits and your reliability as a borrower. All these documents help a lender determine how much you can actually afford on a home.
Getting your preapproval isn’t just about staying competitive in the housing market, though. The process has a couple more benefits. First, collecting all these documents will set you up for the underwriting stage once you have an accepted offer on a house and are working on actually paying for your home.
The process will also give you a very clear picture of your price range. Not only will you be able to see how much you can afford on a house, but you will also see estimates for your monthly mortgage payments, which will help you truly understand what you want and can pay for a house.
Before I close, I wanted to add a couple of recommendations. When it comes to selecting a lender or mortgage broker, go local! Try to avoid mass-marketing companies promising low rates and rapid approval processes.
Local brokers and smaller banks have better reputations for customer satisfaction than the larger companies you may see online or in TV ads. When in doubt, don’t hesitate to ask your trusted real estate agent.
I’d be happy to recommend a broker for you! I work with many brokers on a regular basis, and a dedicated, diligent and caring broker is almost as important as a realtor with those same qualities.
The home buying process is an exciting, stressful, sometimes difficult but always worth it process. There are few financial, personal achievements more satisfying than buying your very own home!
And there’s no denying how confusing it can be for first time buyers. But with preparation and an experienced agent to guide you, finding your dream home is not only achievable but ultimately easy and painless!
If you have any questions about real estate, the home buying process or the preapproval process, feel free to give me a shout!
