cancel
Showing results for 
Search instead for 
Did you mean: 

Pre-Qual vs Pre-approved

tag
dpage
Contributor

Pre-Qual vs Pre-approved

Hello all! My wife and I are in the process of buying a home. I have not met with the lender in person but we have spoke over the phone a few times. My question is, he has already reviewd our credit / credit scores and gave us an amount we can qualify for. He has issued us a pre-qualification letter and not a pre-approval letter. I'm confused becasue we have been submitting offers to various houses (hopefully we will get one accepted soon) and our agent has a copy of our pre-qual letter. I always thought it was better to have a pre approval? I don;t want to finally find a house and then something comes up and we can't get the loan. Should I have any worries?  

Proud home owner
Lender Pull 03/28/2011 EQ:708 TU:698 EXP:709

Message 1 of 6
5 REPLIES 5
cdtotten
Established Contributor

Re: Pre-Qual vs Pre-approved

You may have the two confused.

 

Pre-qualification occurs when the lender receives your basic information (debt, income) and usually does not include an actual review of your credit history. The lender will provide you with an amount that you would qualify for using the basic information you provide and without influence from your credit.

 

Pre-approval occurs when you submit the actual mortgage application, the lender pulls your credit to evaluate your financial risk and determines the actual approval amount based on your complete picture.

 

Hopefully this helps.


Starting Score: 627 EQ, 621 TU - 11/15/08
Current Score: 778 EQ, 781 TU, 778 EXP 07/20/12 Lender Pull
Goal Score: 800 EQ & TU


Take the FICO Fitness Challenge
Message 2 of 6
sleephla541
Regular Contributor

Re: Pre-Qual vs Pre-approved

 


@cdtotten wrote:

You may have the two confused.

 

Pre-qualification occurs when the lender receives your basic information (debt, income) and usually does not include an actual review of your credit history. The lender will provide you with an amount that you would qualify for using the basic information you provide and without influence from your credit.

 

Pre-approval occurs when you submit the actual mortgage application, the lender pulls your credit to evaluate your financial risk and determines the actual approval amount based on your complete picture.

 

Hopefully this helps.


+1

 

TU: 752, EQ: 761, EX: 745
Message 3 of 6
dpage
Contributor

Re: Pre-Qual vs Pre-approved

He has a;ready pulled our credit and reviewed line by line but the letter he issued to us says "pre-qualification"  That's what confused me becasue I thought pre qual was just like you said basic info such as income and debt with out reviewing credit.

Proud home owner
Lender Pull 03/28/2011 EQ:708 TU:698 EXP:709

Message 4 of 6
Anonymous
Not applicable

Re: Pre-Qual vs Pre-approved

Unless you have provided all the hard copy documents it is still a  pre-qual.  A pre-qual usually involves a quick run down and answer.  A pre-approvalis one step further with income documents verified, VOE filled out, bank statements and w2's supplied, etc. 

Message 5 of 6
dpage
Contributor

Re: Pre-Qual vs Pre-approved

Ok. thanks! Smiley Happy

Proud home owner
Lender Pull 03/28/2011 EQ:708 TU:698 EXP:709

Message 6 of 6
Advertiser Disclosure: The offers that appear on this site are from third party advertisers from whom FICO receives compensation.