Compliance
Pre-Qualifications with a Property Address, though, MUST have a Loan Estimate
Last updated on 03 Nov, 2025
We know applications do not necessarily follow a rate inquiry with a property address. For instance, you may provide a pre-qualification letter for a specified loan amount. Does that mean you have a loan application?
"Pre"-Qualifying is a prior-to-application discussion (hence "pre-") of eligibility and rates, applied against published standard qualifying guidelines; ratios, down payment, loan type, and maybe even credit score. This analysis should result in a number: the maximum loan amount a customer could afford. It's not an application, and the result states "THIS IS NOT AN UNDERWRITING DECISION", something that you must feature prominently on any correspondence. This is so consumers don't represent or think that they have been approved when they haven't.

If you call a pre-qualification a "pre-approval", remember that the pre- is pre-property, NOT PRE-UNDERWRITING. Pre-approvals must have underwriting review, even if it is just DU/LP/AU approve/eligible.