A pre-approval tells you, and sellers, how much a lender will actually lend you. It turns a guess into a number and makes your offer far stronger.
Pre-qualification is a quick, informal estimate based on numbers you state, useful for a rough idea. Pre-approval is the real thing: the lender verifies your income, assets, and credit and issues a letter stating the amount they will lend. Sellers take a pre-approval seriously; they often ignore an offer without one.
Expect to provide recent pay stubs, W-2s or tax returns, bank and asset statements, and permission to pull your credit. The lender confirms your income is stable, your down payment funds are real and sourced, and your credit and debts support the payment. Self-employed buyers usually show two years of returns; see self-employed buyers for what to prepare.
Two levers set your approval amount: your credit score, which shapes the rate you are offered, and your debt-to-income ratio, which caps the payment you qualify for. Paying down a card or avoiding a new car loan before applying can meaningfully raise your ceiling. Read credit scores and mortgages and debt-to-income explained to see how.
A pre-approval is conditional. Do not open new credit, finance furniture, change jobs, or make large unexplained deposits between approval and closing, since the lender re-checks before funding. Keep your finances boringly stable and your approval holds.
A pre-approval sets your true budget and its letter strengthens every offer. Get it before you tour homes, and shop more than one lender within a short window so rate quotes compete without extra hits to your credit. See how to shop for a mortgage.
Walk into a pre-approval already knowing what fits. Estimate your price with the affordability calculator and your monthly cost with the mortgage calculator, then match a program in loan types.