Prequalification vs PreApproval
Welcome to this week’s edition of The Mortgage Minute were we take a look at prequalification vs preapproval.
The Mortgage Minute is weekly informational series presented by Laura Borja, Your San Diego home loan expert.
Let’s explore the differences between prequalification vs Preapproval.
A Pre-qualification is more of an overview of an estimation of how much loan you might qualify for.
Your loan officer may or may not run a credit report but many times there’s no documentation actually reviewed. It is solely based on what you say you owe, how much you have and how much you make The loan officer will then establish an approximate range of what you might be able to qualify for.
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A preapproval is a much more comprehensive review of your information.
- Your loan officer will be obtaining a credit report.
- You should be providing your loan officer with all of your income and asset information as well as any other extra documentation that might apply to your situation. Click Here to Download a Detailed Checklist
Your loan officer will then be able to run your file through an automated underwriting system. The system will issue either an approval or a list of conditions as to why you don’t meet the guidelines.
It is very important that you get a preapproval before you go out looking for property.
You don’t want to be out looking for property, fall in love with something and find out that you can’t move forward because your ratios are too high or you don’t have quite enough money or your employment is not long enough or your credit scores are not good enough.
You definitely do not want to be signing a contract before obtaining an actual pre-approval.
Most agents, honestly, will ask you to provide a pre-approval before they put you in the car 
and drive you all over town to show your property.
The next step up in the pre-approval process is a fully underwritten pre-approval.
All of that documentation that your loan officer collected is turned over to an underwriter.
The underwriter reviews the documentation, determines your ability to meet the guidelines and signs off on the pre-approval subject to you finding a property.
Obtaining an underwriter approval gives you an opportunity to address any issues that might arise in any section of your file.
The loan closing can then be a very quick process since all you have to do is insert the property conditions into the approval.
There you have it, a quick overview of prequalification vs preapproval.
If you have any questions or if you’re ready to start the pre-approval process by all means send me an email, give me a call or shoot me a text. I’ll be happy to help.
Thanks for checking out this week’s The Mortgage Minute. Until next week!