If you're thinking about buying a piece of Windsor or Markham real estate you need to be aware of what you're getting yourself into. You can't just wake up one day and decide that you want to buy a house or condo, do some house hunting for a few hours and buy a Windsor house or Toronto waterfront condo at the end of the day. It's just not that simple. There are so many things you have to do from the moment you decide you want to be a home owner to the moment you actually make an offer on a house or condo to the moment you move in.

You have to hire a real estate agent, you have to decide what features your Windsor or Oakville homes for sale must have, you need to research potential neighbourhoods, you have to go over your finances to determine how much you can afford, and you have to meet with mortgage Ontario lenders, just to name a few. As you can see, none of the above mentioned steps in the real estate buying process are easy or quick. You're going to be spending a lot of time buying a house or condo. As you should. This isn't something you should take lightly.

When it comes to determining how much you can afford to spend on a home you're going to be getting a lot of information thrown your way about mortgages. There are a few mortgage varieties out there and you're going to have to decide which one is right for you. As well, you will need to figure out is pre-approval worth it? Should you get pre-approved for a mortgage before you start looking for real estate?

The main advantage of being pre-approved for a Windsor or Brampton mortgage is that you will know exactly how much you can afford to spend on real estate. You will have a figure in mind that you have been pre-approved for which means that you can look for houses in that price range and not waste your time by looking at homes you can't afford. Once you do find that home you want, you won't have to worry about getting financing because you've already been pre-approved. That's a major advantage to have when shopping for real estate.

One disadvantage of being pre-approved for a mortgage means you might be rushed into making a decision. Most pre-approved mortgages come with an expiry date that range anywhere from 30-120 days. Not everyone can find a house in such a period of time. Of course you can get your pre-approved mortgage renewed but that's not always a guarantee.