Pre Approval Letter

[Jim Arnold]

Hello all, when obtaining pre approval for a conventional mortgage does the lender state a specific time frame or place an expiration date on the approval amount? If so, how long is the approval usually good for?

[Chris Mason]

@Jim Arnold, depends on the lender and depends on you. 

Strong credit, takes care of business, everything solid, straight shooter? No need for an expiration date. Let me know if your financial situation changes (for the worse, or better) and I'll re-evaluate numbers and re-visit it.

FICO within 5 points of being a deal-breaker? Well, random FICO score fluctuations range from 10-20 points, so I don't have a choice -- until you're out of that "just barely" range I need to re-pull every 2-3 months. I'll use our FICO simulator to figure out what you need to do in order to be out of that range so that we're in the clear in the future, but it's on you if you actually do those things or not.