Yesterday, we took a look at pre-approval for a mortgage loan. Another step that could help you in the home buying process is pre-qualification, which is a little different from pre-approval. It has the similar quality of allowing you an idea of what you can buy, but it does not include a credit check, like pre-approval does.

With pre-qualification, you bring in information about your income and your debts. You should bring in some documentation to back this up as well. You might try checking your credit report ahead of time (you checking your own report does not affect your score)  so that you can give the lender an idea of what your score actually is.

Remember that this is not a pre-approval. Because the information is based on limited documentation, it is merely what the lender thinks you are most likely to get in terms of amount of money and interest rate. It is not set in stone, and the pre-approval process could change things. But it will usually give you enough information to decide which lender will work best for you.