A preapproval is the letter that turns "we can probably afford it" into a number a seller can read. It is easy to confuse with the two things it is not — a quick prequalification estimate, and an actual promise to lend. Here is what a lender really did before signing it, how long it lasts, and why sellers treat it as evidence rather than paperwork.
A preapproval is a written letter from a lender stating an amount the lender is prepared to lend you, issued after a documented review: your income, assets, and employment verified from pay stubs, tax returns, and bank statements, and your credit checked. Nothing in it rests on what you told the lender over the phone. The letter names the amount and usually the loan type, and it carries its condition in plain sight: it is subject to the property — the specific home must appraise at value, its title must clear, and the loan must pass final underwriting before closing. You get one by applying with a lender before or during your home search and handing over the documents; the review is the product.
A prequalification rests on self-reported figures without document verification — you state your income, debts, and assets, and the lender returns an informal estimate, often in minutes and often without a credit pull. It is a useful first filter for your own budget and nothing more. A preapproval is the same conversation with the documents opened: every number a lender relied on was checked against a record. Sellers and their agents price that difference into how seriously they take an offer, because an offer's financing is only as strong as the checking behind it. The common path is both, in order: prequalified early to set the search range, preapproved before the first offer.
What it does: sellers and their agents treat a preapproval letter as evidence the buyer's financing has been document-checked, so the offer competes on price and terms instead of on doubt. In a multiple-offer situation, that evidence is often what separates the financed offer a seller accepts from the one set aside. What it does not do: it is not a loan commitment and not a guarantee to lend. The property has not been appraised yet, the title has not been searched, and final underwriting has the last word at closing. A preapproval also expires — a letter typically carries an expiration of 60–90 days, though it varies by lender — because the documents behind it describe a moment in time. An expired letter is refreshed with updated documents, not argued with.
The letter was issued against your finances as documented; change the finances and the lender verifies again. The working rules buyers are given are boring on purpose: do not open new credit or take on a new loan, do not move large sums without a paper trail, and tell the lender before a job change rather than after. Keep the letter current while you shop — an offer written on day 75 of a 60-day letter carries an expired promise, and a seller's agent who checks the date will read it that way. None of this is a reason to rush a purchase; it is a reason the preapproval step belongs early, refreshed as needed, so the letter in the offer is the letter the lender still stands behind.
Homeowner HQ does not issue preapprovals, set lending standards, or read a lender's letter for you — the lender who ran your documents, and the letter itself with its amount, conditions, and expiration date, are where those answers live. What HQ keeps straight is the homeowner side of the paper: the letter, its expiration, and the lender who issued it are facts of your purchase that belong filed against the home's tracked record, so the financing story behind the offer you made is findable in one place when the file is asked for again.
Your own agent sends a monthly value update from Homeowner HQ — the estimate, labeled as an estimate, with your equity beside it — and HQ runs on Amazon AWS. A preapproval touches that equity before you even own the home: the amount on the letter caps the price you can credibly offer, and the appraisal it is subject to is the first test of the value you will track from closing onward. Keep the record in HQ current — when a letter is issued, refreshed, or expires, correct the fact in HQ with your own agent the same week, so the purchase file you keep and the purchase file your lender holds tell the same story. When you later sell, the buyer's preapproval letter will be read by your side exactly the way yours was read: as evidence, with a date on it.
Homeowners are always free. Realtors pay $25/mo to join and lenders join at the $5/mo founding rate, at any book size, with no setup fee; sending messages inside HQ is a $100/mo unlock ($125/mo total for realtors, $105/mo total for lenders). A lender-sponsored realtor joins for $0.
Homeowner HQ is an AI-powered marketing department for agents and lenders — a relationship and revenue engine, not a homeowner database. A homeowner's record routes them back to their own agent; it is never sold and never shown to lenders.