Questions and Answers Filling Out Mortgage Application for Pre-Approval at Veterans United

There is too much information about buying a house.

After reading so many books, articles, watching videos and listening to podcasts I had more questions.

This is why I started this blog, to distill all the information about first time home buying to simple and concrete steps.

Here are questions I had and answers I found as me and Stacey were going through financing/pre-approval stage of home buying process.

Is Pre-Qualification and Pre-Approval the same?

They are NOT the same.

Pre-Qualification is a verbal discussion about your finances to determine your debt-to-income ratio. During this process you are just talking and nothing is guaranteed, signed or promised. You can do pre-qualification yourself to determine where you stand using hundreds of free online calculators.

Pre-Approval is an actual process of filling out an application to get a home loan from a bank or mortgage broker. During this step you actually submit all required documents and the lender looks at your income, your debt and your credit history.

Pre-qualification is a verbal discussion. Pre-approval is the real thing.

Veterans United loan officer told me that they do NOT do pre-qualifications. They only do pre-approvals.

Find a lender you want to work with and start pre-approval process, also known as loan application.

What happens to these documents once I submit them? What do you do with them?

When you submit all the required documents for pre-approval you start the application process. The loan officer will go through and fill out the application for you to see how much you qualify to borrow.

What would be our next step to do after submitting these documents?

Wait for the results to come back from the loan officer. They will tell you how much the lender is willing to let you borrow.

Do you pull up our credit score in this process?

Yes. You also get to find out your credit score right then and there. We walked into the Veterans United office and did the application in person. The loan officer then told us our credit scores.

Is pre-approval process the same as the application process? Or are these two different?

They are the same. You fill out the application for pre-approval and you submit all the documents so the loan officer can calculate your debt-to-income ratio.

Does the application pre-approval process and submitting documents cost money?

It does NOT cost money. Not with Veterans United. I can't speak for any other place. I don't see why it should cost you money.