Getting Pre-Approved As Young, Poor, & Recent Grad

[Evan Thomas]

Hey All,

I just graduated from college last May, and I've been paying rent in NYC for about a year. I'd like to get pre-approved for a mortgage so I can househack my first deal with an FHA loan. While looking through the pre-approval guidelines on Investopedia & Quicken Loans for an outline of what I need, I noticed that it will be very hard for a bank to verify my credit history and pay history since it's so short.

I've only had a credit card (that I've been diligently paying off for a year) and a credit history of 742 currently, I only have 1 W-2 since I just started my job last July, and my bank account is pretty slim because I'm currently paying such high rent. 

If I'm starting to save now, should I try to get pre-approved now or should I wait 3 months which is when I'll have some money in the bank? If I got a tiny pre-approval now, could I get a bigger pre-approval letter in a few months from now (when I have more history and savings) without the stigma of the first pre-approval amount?

Thank you so much for your input.