@rjfallon wrote:
We are looking to start the home buying process, and figure that we should get pre-approved prior to contacting a realtor. Seeing as the market is starting to slow down for the winter, we are assuming it may be a few months before we find a house.
I was wondering how that works for the pre-approval. Does the pre-approval "expire" and if so will we need to keep getting pre-approved, resulting in a credit pull each time? I wasn't sure how that would affect the credit score when we actually apply for the mortgage.
Your pre-approval should be good for 90 days, at which time the lender will need to do another credit pull and reissue a new letter. As for score drops due to multiple pulls, I've had a total of 8 pulls per report and my score dropped 1 point so far. I hope that another pull won't do more damage. Others have reported that their score dropped more points though. Any pulls within a 30-45 day timeframe are generally counted as one - when viewed by potential lenders.
