Pre-approval
Mortgage Pre-Approval in Calgary
A pre-approval is the difference between shopping with a number and shopping with a guess.
It is not, however, a promise of financing — and the gap between those two things is where buyers get caught.
Pre-approval
A pre-approval is the difference between shopping with a number and shopping with a guess.
It is not, however, a promise of financing — and the gap between those two things is where buyers get caught.
A pre-approval is a lender's assessment, based on the information available at the time, of how much you may be able to borrow and on what terms.
It is useful for three things: establishing a realistic price range, showing sellers you are a serious buyer, and surfacing problems while they are still fixable rather than during a condition period.
A pre-approval is not final mortgage approval.
The lender must still approve both the borrower and the property. A pre-approval says something about you; it says nothing about the specific home you eventually offer on.
Changes in your circumstances between pre-approval and closing can also affect the outcome — a job change, a new loan, a large purchase on credit, or a change in the down payment.
This is exactly why financing conditions exist in a purchase contract, and why the condition period needs to be long enough for the lender to do its work on the property.
Requirements vary by lender and situation, but most applications involve some version of:
Self-employed applicants, new-to-Canada applicants and anyone with less conventional income should expect to provide more documentation. That is normal, not a problem.
Many straightforward applications can be processed within approximately two to three business days once all required documentation has been received. More complex applications may require additional time.
The variable is almost always documentation rather than the lender. Applications stall waiting for a document far more often than they stall in underwriting.
Depending on the lender and the mortgage product, a pre-approval may include a rate hold for a specified period while you shop.
Availability, duration and how any future rate changes are handled depend on the lender and the product — there is no single universal rate hold, and we deliberately do not publish a figure here that would be wrong the moment a lender changed policy. Ask Al about current rate hold options →
A pre-approval shapes more than your price range. It affects how your offer is written.
How long a financing condition needs to be, whether the property type may attract extra lender scrutiny, whether an appraisal is likely, and how possession dates line up with funding — all of it is easier to get right when your REALTOR® and your mortgage professional are talking to each other before the offer goes in rather than after.
Understand your realistic buying range before you start seriously shopping.
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