Pre Approval

This is an important first step and gets you started down the financial road.

Holding the rate
Once you've been pre-approved you can have the bank rate guaranteed for 90 days and even up to 120 days with some lenders. This means you can enjoy the benefit of getting the best rate from the time of your pre-approval until closing, provided it's within the specified time frame.

Knowing the payments costs
The other benefit is that you now know exactly how much the bank will lend you and what those payments look like in monthly payments of principal and interest.

Stronger negotiating position
The third benefit of pre-approval, is that your agent can assure any prospective seller that in fact you are qualified to buy the house. Good agents will insist that you have been through this process before submitting an offer on a house.

No Cost, no obligation
The pre-approval process is a great advantage to you an it's at no cost or obligation.

Pre-qualification versus pre-approval
Pre approval is the process of figuring out your maximum allowable monthly mortgage payments from the details of your total income and total debts. Pre-qualification is the verification of the information, credit checks etc, and is a mandatory step before the banks will approve the mortgage.