Pre-Approval FAQs

In short, it is possible to shop for a home without a mortgage pre-approval letter. There is nothing stopping you from looking at a home that you’re interested in buying and making an offer without a lender or agent involved. However, if you are serious about purchasing a home then having a pre-approval can help get you into your home a bit quicker.

When home shoppers ask about the first step to getting a mortgage, the response should be, “Get a mortgage pre-approval.” This is a common first step to make as it gives you an idea of how much house you’re likely to get approved for, makes real estate agents and sellers know that you’re serious, and enables you to shop with greater confidence.

When you apply for a mortgage pre-approval, your lender will collect all of your background information, this includes a credit report. This will show up as a hard inquiry on your credit history, and hard inquiries do affect your credit score. The good news is that the impact is temporary, and the review moves you one step closer to getting a new home.

When you get your mortgage pre-approval letter, it is generally good for 30-to-90 days. Your lender will confirm the time frame. After this period ends, your mortgage pre-approval expires, but there’s a bit more to learn about the pre-approval process.

Have you thought about buying a home, but don’t know where to start? That is why pre-approvals and pre-qualifications come into play. Though the terms may seem the same (and maybe you’ve heard them used interchangeably) they are actually different, first let’s look into each before delving into their differences.

You may have heard the term debt-to-income ratio, or DTI for short, but what exactly is it and why is it important for you to know as a homebuyer? Simply, it’s a formula that your lender uses to assess the resources you have available to make your monthly mortgage payments.