A mortgage prequalification or a conditional approval will help you find the homes that fit your budget.
Get prequalified if you’re thinking about buying a home and want to get an idea of how much you can afford to borrow for your new home. Get conditionally approved when you’re ready to start shopping for a home and want sellers to know that you’re serious.
What It Means to Be Prequalified for a Mortgage Loan
Getting prequalified for a mortgage is a quick way to get an estimate of how much you can borrow. Before you start searching seriously for a home, it’s a good idea to get prequalified so you have a ballpark number in mind for your home shopping budget.
How to Get Prequalified for a Home Mortgage.
To get prequalified, a mortgage banker will check your credit, and ask you for some basic financial information about your income, debt, savings, and assets. Your mortgage banker will then send you a prequalification letter summarizing your home-buying budget.
Note: The mortgage prequalification letter is not a loan agreement. It’s simply an estimate of how much you can afford to borrow based on the information you provided.
Contact your broker to get prequalified or you can prequalify online.
What it Means to Be Conditionally Approved for a Home Loan
Getting conditionally approved for a home loan means that you’ve applied for and received tentative approval for your loan, before you actually make an offer on a house.
If you are conditionally approved for a home loan, you can be relatively confident that your loan will be processed quickly and easily, as long as all the information you’ve provided is accurate and can be documented upon request.
How to get Conditionally Approved
To get conditionally approved while you are searching for your new home, ask a Chase Mortgage Banker about Homebuyer AdvantageSM.
- You will provide income and asset documentation (e.g., pay stubs, bank statements and tax returns).
- We will review your income, assets and credit history up front—to give you a head start on the mortgage loan approval process.
You may receive a Conditional Approval Letter, a summary of your loan’s details—estimated rate, loan size, and terms to share with the seller and real estate agent to demonstrate you are a serious and prepared buyer. After you have made an offer on a home, we typically just need the purchase contract and appraisal to finalize the paperwork.
Your Conditional Approval is typically valid for 90 days. If closing does not occur before expiration of the conditional approval, credit report and other documents may need to be updated.
How to Use Your Mortgage Prequalification or Conditional Approval Letter
Your mortgage prequalification letter can help you refine your home search. Your real estate agent will often request that you get prequalified or conditionally approved for a mortgage before visiting houses, so they can help you find a home that meets your actual budget.
Keep in mind that if you’re working with a seller’s real estate agent, you may want to avoid disclosing your maximum budget, as it could potentially work against you in the negotiation process.
| Prequalification | Conditional Approval |
|---|---|
| Description Provides an estimate of how much you can borrow. |
Description Lets real estate agents and sellers know that your income, assets, and employment have been verified and your credit has been approved. |
| Benefit Helps you determine how much you can afford when shopping for a home. |
Benefit Gives you an advantage when negotiating with sellers. Can make your loan processing easier and faster because most of your documentation should have been submitted and reviewed. |
| When used Can help you when you are just beginning to think about buying a home and want to get an idea of how much you can afford. |
When used This is an excellent tool to have when you are committed to buying a home and are ready to start working with real estate agents or already have an agent. |