Getting Pre-Approved (and Why It Comes First)

House hunting feels like it starts with browsing, but it really starts with a lender. A pre-approval letter turns your budget from a guess into a number, and it changes how everyone treats you: your agent can search with precision, and sellers read your offer as real. When a good home draws more than one buyer, an offer without a letter behind it is easy to set aside. Pre-approval is also different from pre-qualification — the first means a lender actually reviewed your documents; the second is closer to a polite estimate.

What lenders want is less mysterious than it feels: roughly two years of W-2s or tax returns, a month of recent pay stubs, a couple of bank statements, and permission to pull your credit. They are weighing your income against your debts to find a monthly payment you can carry comfortably. Self-employed buyers should expect to show more history, so start earlier.

Two habits protect you from here: shop two or three lenders within a short window so the credit inquiries count as one event, and once you are pre-approved, keep your finances boring — no new credit cards, no big unexplained transfers, and no financing a truck before closing day.