patrick.net

I'd say you're buying too much house for that annual salary. Best to stick with a price range topping out at 3x annual salary. Wait a year or so, this house may yet come into your range.

Do all of your shopping for the best interest rates at about the same time and it's not that big a deal. Why are you applying for a loan five months in advance? I have purchased dozens of homes, most with cash, some were financed and it's my opinion that you're wasting your time to go through this excersice this far out. Rates change, the pre approval letter isn't good that far out, etc. Rates literally change by the minute so when you do lock in 30 days before you purchase, you may find that an hour later or the next day that the rate has either gone up or down. This sounds like this is your first home purchase. Slow down and check with a large, good, reputable mortgage broker that can give you the all the rates and companies for comparison. I actually was able to get a better Wells Fargo rate through a broker and Wells was a good lender/servicer.

Here is what FICO tells you about mortgage shopping and your credit score.

Fallacy: My score will drop if I apply for new credit.
Fact: If it does, it probably won't drop much. If you apply for several credit cards within a short period of time, multiple requests for your credit report information (called “inquiries”) will appear on your report. Looking for new credit can equate with higher risk, but most credit scores are not affected by multiple inquiries from auto or mortgage lenders within a short period of time. Typically, these are treated as a single inquiry and will have little impact on the credit score.

My advice, that price is way above your salary range. You might want to wait until something comes into your price range or you save enough money to comfortably get into a house you want while still maintaining an emergency fund.

I can give you my own advice on this. I think this price is going to strap you down into a house and suck the life out of you. At 44K a year there is no way you will even be able to afford living your life. You will have a house payment that will eat up half your income. I wouldn't commit to anything over 28 percent of my take home pay for monthly homeownership payments. I live at a homeownership cost of 20 percent of my take home pay and it feels very comfortable. I have very little stress in my life and a solid emergency fund.

Don't buy that much house; live your life.

If you are stressed about interest rates rising, don’t be. I believe any rise in interest rates will only lower housing prices because it will lower demand. That’s what I told my realtor in 2009 when they were trying to get me to purchase a house at 50 percent of my income and much more space than I needed. The agent said “interest rates will go up soon.” I said “so what, that means the prices will have to drop.” The agent didn’t understand the economics.

I suggest you check on the Google's rate and shop around, also watch the rate on Zillow and the news + the market when locking; do ask for no point no fee, take it slow and bargain for better rate. Broker is a good option for good rate. Most of the big banks will service you later if you get loan from BROKER.
I got an okay rate with X company that I don't even remember now, and now I'm on Wells Fargo.

For the house hunt! GOOD LUCK & HAVE FUN!

Rate is low for a while, take your time!!

You're asking if applying for another loan will lower your credit? lurking answered that question.

My additional thoughts would be:
Why bother hyperoptimizing your credit score in this manner? Additional credit inquiries can lower your credit, but only to a point. Furthermore, making 5 mortgage inquiries within a short period still counts as 1 inquiry because it's expected that you'll shop around the loan.

What you should instead be thinking about is whether buying this house is a good decision. You didn't even tell us the rate that Wells Fargo offered you. How could we possibly tell you whether you will qualify for a 4.25% loan with the extremely limited amount of information you gave us.

That is like borrowing 5.5 times your annual income. I think you reconsider that.