Pre-Approval letter expiration

[Chanise P.]

Hi All,

So my fiancee and i have been shopping around for multi's and haven't found anything yet. We ended up switching realtors but are now running into an expired approval letter issue. I have a few questions:

1. Is this new inquiry going to seriously damage my credit score?

2. I'm thinking of switching lenders: if i stayed and they did a "dust off" of the expired one would that be better for my credit?

Thanks in advance for any advice!

[Josh Dillingham]

Chanise,

if they have to do a hard pull of your credit to give you a new pre-approval letter I would say the most it would hurt your credit would be 5 points, but it may not effect it at all.  as far as switching lenders, if you can get the old lender to renew the pre-approval letter without doing a hard pull that would be your best bet.  Even if you plan to switch lenders it would probably be easiest for you to stick with the same lender for the pre-approval letter, then when you have an offer accepted you can reach out to other banks.  the pre-approval letter doesn't obligate you to get a loan from that specific lender it just says to the buyer "hey look, there is a bank willing to give this person the money they need to buy my house."