How long does a pre-approval take?

With complete documents, many lenders issue a pre-approval within one to three business days. Self-employed files and complex income take longer. A fully underwritten approval usually takes one to two weeks depending on the lender's queue.

How long is a pre-approval good for?

Typically sixty to ninety days, because credit reports and income documents go stale. Refreshing it is quick once your file exists, and lenders will reissue an updated letter for a specific offer amount when you need one.

Does shopping multiple lenders hurt my credit?

Not meaningfully. Mortgage inquiries within a short shopping window are generally treated as a single event by scoring models, and a hard inquiry has a small, short-lived effect. Shopping two or three lenders is normal and often saves real money.

What credit score do I need?

It depends on the program. Conventional loans generally want higher scores for the best pricing, FHA allows lower scores with compensating factors, and VA guidelines are set largely by the lender. Rather than chasing a single number, we identify which threshold is nearest and whether reaching it is realistic before you apply.

How is debt-to-income actually calculated?

Add every monthly debt payment that appears on your credit report, plus the proposed housing payment including principal, interest, taxes, insurance, mortgage insurance, and HOA dues. Divide that total by your gross monthly income. Groceries, utilities, and phone bills are not counted. Limits vary by program, and compensating factors such as reserves can allow higher ratios.

Should I get pre-approved before I start touring homes?

Yes, and for two reasons. It tells you what you can actually afford before you fall for something outside your range, and it lets you write an offer immediately when the right home appears. Without it you are effectively window shopping.

Can I get pre-approved while self-employed?

Yes. Expect deeper documentation: two years of personal and business returns, a year-to-date profit and loss, and often business bank statements. Qualifying income is calculated from net profit after expenses, which is usually lower than gross revenue. Bank statement programs exist for borrowers whose returns understate real cash flow.

What is the difference between rate, points, and lender credits?

Points are money paid up front to lower your rate. Lender credits are the reverse: a higher rate in exchange for money toward closing costs. Neither is automatically better. The right choice depends on how long you will hold the loan and whether cash at closing or monthly payment matters more to you.

Will my payment change after closing?

Principal and interest stay fixed on a fixed-rate loan, but your escrow portion can move as property taxes and insurance premiums change. Expect a small adjustment in year two. Mortgage insurance can also drop off once you reach the required equity threshold on many conventional loans.

Can a pre-approval be denied later?

Yes. A pre-approval is conditional. It can fail if income changes, new debt appears, assets cannot be sourced, the appraisal comes in low, or title issues surface. Keeping your finances still between approval and closing is the single best thing you can do.

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Pre-Approval

Get Pre-Approved With a Plan, Not Just a Number

A pre-approval letter is easy to get. Knowing what it means, what it costs you monthly, and how to use it to win a home is the part that matters.

Start a Pre-Approval Plan Run the Numbers

14+ years in mortgage lending
NMLS-licensed background
Document checklist provided up front
Cash-to-close estimate in writing

Important Disclosure

Read this before you use anything on this page

Brandon Rearick is a licensed real estate broker. Information provided here is general education and is not a loan commitment, an offer to lend, or personalized financial advice. Loan programs, rates, and qualification requirements vary by lender and by borrower and are subject to change. Consult a licensed mortgage professional regarding your specific situation.

Three Levels

Pre-Qualification, Pre-Approval, and Underwritten Approval

These three terms get used interchangeably. They are not the same thing, and the difference decides whether your offer gets taken seriously.

01
Pre-qualification
A conversation. You state your income, debts, and assets, and the lender estimates what you might borrow. Nothing is verified and nothing is checked. It is worth very little in a competitive offer, and listing agents know it.
02
Pre-approval
The lender pulls credit, collects documents, and issues a conditional commitment for a specific amount. This is the working standard for making offers, and it is what a listing agent expects to see attached to your contract.
03
Underwritten pre-approval
A human underwriter reviews the full file before you have a property under contract. Income, assets, and credit are cleared in advance, leaving only the appraisal and title. This is the strongest position short of cash, and it can win a home over a higher offer.

Here is why this wins homes. When a listing agent compares two offers at the same price, one with a basic pre-approval and one underwritten in advance, the underwritten file looks dramatically safer. Fewer things can go wrong, and the timeline is more certain. Sellers pay for certainty, and they pay in price.

Getting to underwritten approval takes an extra week or two before you shop. In a competitive segment it is the cheapest advantage available to you.

Checklist

The Exact Document Checklist

Gather these before you apply. A complete file moves fast, and a slow file loses homes.

Two most recent pay stubs covering thirty days of income
W-2 forms for the last two years
Federal tax returns for the last two years, all pages and schedules
Two months of statements for every bank and investment account, all pages
Photo identification and Social Security number for the credit pull
Self-employed: two years of business returns, a year-to-date profit and loss, and K-1s where applicable
Retired: award letters, 1099-R forms, and pension or annuity documentation
Landlord contact information or twelve months of canceled rent checks
Divorce decree or separation agreement where support payments are involved
Gift letter and donor account documentation if any funds are gifted
Bankruptcy discharge or short sale documentation where applicable

Two practical notes. Send every page of every statement, including the blank ones, because underwriters reject partial documents and the round trip costs days. And do not edit or reformat anything. Download the original PDF from your bank rather than screenshotting a balance.

The Math

How Debt-to-Income Is Actually Calculated

DTI is the number that most often determines your approval amount, and almost nobody explains it properly. Here is the arithmetic with real figures.

Take a household earning $9,000 per month gross. Their credit report shows a $450 car payment, $120 in minimum credit card payments, and a $280 student loan payment. That is $850 in existing monthly debt.

Now add the proposed housing payment. On a $600,000 purchase with 10 percent down, the loan is $540,000. Say principal and interest run $3,450, property taxes add $375, homeowner insurance adds $150, and mortgage insurance adds $180. Total housing payment is $4,155.

Add the two together: $850 plus $4,155 is $5,005. Divide by $9,000 in gross income and the DTI is roughly 55.6 percent. That is above where most conventional programs land, so this household either buys at a lower price, pays off the car, or brings a larger down payment.

Pay off that $450 car and DTI drops to about 50.6 percent. That single move can be worth fifty thousand dollars of purchase power. This is exactly the calculation we run before you tour, because knowing which lever to pull is worth more than knowing your maximum.

Note what is not counted: groceries, utilities, phone bills, insurance for your car, childcare, and retirement contributions. All real expenses. None of them appear in DTI. That is precisely why your approval amount can exceed what you can comfortably afford, and why we set a monthly comfort number separately.

Credit

Credit Moves That Help, and Ones That Backfire

Score thresholds move your rate in real increments. A few points can be worth thousands over the life of the loan.

These help

Pay balances down below 30 percent of each card's limit, ideally below 10 percent
Pay every account on time for at least six months before applying
Keep old accounts open to preserve length of credit history
Dispute genuine reporting errors early, since corrections take weeks
Ask about a rapid rescore through your lender when a paydown should move your score

These backfire

Financing a car, a boat, or furniture while you are shopping for a home
Opening a store card for a discount at checkout
Using buy-now-pay-later plans, which increasingly report to bureaus
Closing a paid-off card, which shrinks your available credit
Co-signing a loan for anyone, which adds the full payment to your ratios
Moving large sums between accounts without a documented paper trail
Depositing cash without a verifiable source

Loan Programs

Comparing Conventional, FHA, VA, and Jumbo

Program choice affects your down payment, your mortgage insurance, your rate, and even which offers get accepted. Here is the general shape of each.

Conventional loans are the most common path. They allow down payments well below twenty percent, carry private mortgage insurance until you build enough equity, and reward stronger credit with better pricing. Mortgage insurance can be removed later, which is a meaningful long-term advantage.

FHA loans are more forgiving on credit and allow lower down payments, which makes them valuable for buyers rebuilding credit or working with limited savings. The trade is mortgage insurance that generally stays for the life of the loan on most current structures, so refinancing later is often part of the plan.

VA loans, available to eligible service members, veterans, and certain surviving spouses, are the strongest terms in American lending. No down payment requirement, no monthly mortgage insurance, and competitive rates. If you are eligible, this deserves serious consideration.

Jumbo loans exceed conforming limits and are underwritten by the lender or held in portfolio. Expect deeper documentation, larger reserve requirements, sometimes two appraisals, and real variation between lenders. Terms are more negotiable here than anywhere else.

Program limits, mortgage insurance rules, and eligibility requirements change. Confirm current specifics with a licensed mortgage professional before building a plan on them.

Pricing

Rate Versus Points Versus Credits

Every rate quote is really a menu. Understanding the trade is how you avoid overpaying.

Points are money paid up front to buy a lower rate. One point is one percent of the loan amount, and it typically moves the rate by a fraction. The question is your break-even: how many months of payment savings it takes to recover the cost. If you plan to hold the loan seven years and break even at four, points make sense. If you expect to move or refinance in three, they do not.

Lender credits run the other direction. You accept a higher rate and the lender contributes toward closing costs. For a buyer short on cash, that trade can be exactly right even though the rate looks worse on paper.

Compare offers on total cost over your expected holding period, not on the rate alone. Two lenders quoting the same rate can differ by thousands in fees, and the disclosure that reveals it is the Loan Estimate.

Underwriting

What Underwriting Actually Looks At

An underwriter is answering one question: is this loan likely to be repaid? Everything they request serves that question.

Income stability and whether it is likely to continue
Debt-to-income ratio against program guidelines
Credit history, depth, and any recent derogatory activity
Asset sourcing and seasoning, meaning where the money came from and how long it sat
Property type, condition, and appraised value
Reserves remaining after closing
Employment verification, often re-checked days before closing

Warning

What Kills a Loan Between Approval and Closing

Approval is conditional. These are the things that undo it, and almost all of them are avoidable.

Changing jobs, or switching from salaried to self-employed, before closing
Financing a car or opening new credit after approval
A large unexplained deposit that cannot be sourced
Missing a payment on any account during the process
Slow document responses that push the file past contract deadlines
An appraisal that comes in below the contract price
Title issues, liens, or unresolved judgments discovered late

The rule is simple. From application to keys, keep your financial life boring. No new credit, no job changes, no large unexplained transfers, and answer document requests the same day. Celebrate with the furniture purchase after closing, not before.

Tools

Run Your Own Numbers First

The affordability and payment calculators are live on the site, so you can test scenarios privately before you talk to anyone.

Try a few versions. Change the down payment. Change the price. Add the car payment back in and watch what happens to your comfortable range. Seeing the levers move is the fastest way to understand your own numbers.

Open the affordability and payment calculators

Get In Touch

Start a pre-approval plan

Tell me where you stand and what you are hoping to buy. You will get an honest read on your numbers, a document checklist, and an introduction to lenders who close on time.

Prefer to talk it through? Call or text 970-691-0122.

Questions

Pre-Approval Questions

: With complete documents, many lenders issue a pre-approval within one to three business days. Self-employed files and complex income take longer. A fully underwritten approval usually takes one to two weeks depending on the lender's queue.
: Typically sixty to ninety days, because credit reports and income documents go stale. Refreshing it is quick once your file exists, and lenders will reissue an updated letter for a specific offer amount when you need one.
: Not meaningfully. Mortgage inquiries within a short shopping window are generally treated as a single event by scoring models, and a hard inquiry has a small, short-lived effect. Shopping two or three lenders is normal and often saves real money.
: It depends on the program. Conventional loans generally want higher scores for the best pricing, FHA allows lower scores with compensating factors, and VA guidelines are set largely by the lender. Rather than chasing a single number, we identify which threshold is nearest and whether reaching it is realistic before you apply.
: Add every monthly debt payment that appears on your credit report, plus the proposed housing payment including principal, interest, taxes, insurance, mortgage insurance, and HOA dues. Divide that total by your gross monthly income. Groceries, utilities, and phone bills are not counted. Limits vary by program, and compensating factors such as reserves can allow higher ratios.
: Yes, and for two reasons. It tells you what you can actually afford before you fall for something outside your range, and it lets you write an offer immediately when the right home appears. Without it you are effectively window shopping.
: Yes. Expect deeper documentation: two years of personal and business returns, a year-to-date profit and loss, and often business bank statements. Qualifying income is calculated from net profit after expenses, which is usually lower than gross revenue. Bank statement programs exist for borrowers whose returns understate real cash flow.
: Points are money paid up front to lower your rate. Lender credits are the reverse: a higher rate in exchange for money toward closing costs. Neither is automatically better. The right choice depends on how long you will hold the loan and whether cash at closing or monthly payment matters more to you.
: Principal and interest stay fixed on a fixed-rate loan, but your escrow portion can move as property taxes and insurance premiums change. Expect a small adjustment in year two. Mortgage insurance can also drop off once you reach the required equity threshold on many conventional loans.
: Yes. A pre-approval is conditional. It can fail if income changes, new debt appears, assets cannot be sourced, the appraisal comes in low, or title issues surface. Keeping your finances still between approval and closing is the single best thing you can do.

Keep Reading

Know your numbers before you tour

One conversation gives you a real budget, a document list, and a plan for the strongest possible offer.

Talk with Brandon Buyer Guidance