It was definitely a crazy time for mortgages. I was buying my first house in 2007 and went to Countrywide for a mortgage. I had analyzed my finances and determi

It was definitely a crazy time for mortgages. I was buying my first house in 2007 and went to Countrywide for a mortgage. I had analyzed my finances and determined that I should be looking for a home in the up to $240k range and could push it up to $300k with some trepidation. Countrywide looked at my finances and pre-approved a loan of up to something like $700k. Since my analysis had told me that was way more than I could afford I only looked at houses under $300k. I wonder though how many people apply without having done their own analysis instead trusting that the mortgage company would not offer more than they can afford? Anyone else here who was buying around the time with stories of receiving insanely high pre-approvals?