The Pre-Approval Checklist for Greater Boston Buyers

In this market you cannot make a credible offer without a pre-approval, and a listing agent can tell the difference between a real one and a form letter in about four seconds. Getting a strong one is mostly a matter of preparation.

Pre-qualification, pre-approval, commitment: three different things

Pre-qualification is a conversation. You tell a lender your income and debts, they tell you roughly what you might borrow. Nothing is verified. It is worth very little in an offer.
Pre-approval means the lender has collected and reviewed your documents and pulled your credit. It is conditional, but it is based on evidence.
A commitment letter comes after underwriting has reviewed the specific property and the appraisal. This is the one your mortgage contingency date refers to.

When a seller compares offers, they are reading how much verification sits behind each of those letters. A pre-approval from a lender who has actually seen your tax returns beats a bigger number from one who has not.

The document list

Have all of this in one folder before you call a lender:

Two years of W-2s, or two years of complete tax returns with all schedules if you are self-employed.
Thirty days of pay stubs.
Two to three months of statements for every account you will draw the down payment from — all pages, including the blank ones.
Photo ID and Social Security number.
Details of every debt: student loans, car loans, credit cards, personal loans.
If you are self-employed: a year-to-date profit and loss, and your business returns.
If you are relying on a gift for the down payment: the donor's details, because it will need a gift letter and a paper trail.
If you own other property: the mortgage statement, tax bill, insurance, and any lease.
If you are not a US citizen: your visa or permanent resident documentation.

Sourcing and seasoning: the rule nobody warns you about

Every dollar of your down payment has to be traceable. A lender looks at two to three months of statements and asks about any deposit that is not payroll. Cash you deposited, a transfer from a relative, proceeds from selling a car — all of it needs an explanation and often documentation.

The practical consequence: move the money into one account before you start, and then stop moving it. Funds that have sat in an account for the full statement period are "seasoned" and stop being a question. Family help that arrives as an undocumented transfer three days before closing is a genuine problem.

What the lender is calculating

Two ratios and a score.

Debt-to-income. Your total monthly obligations — the proposed mortgage payment including taxes and insurance, plus every other debt — against gross monthly income. Conventional loans commonly work up to the mid-40s in percentage terms, with room above that in some programmes.
Loan-to-value. The loan against the property's value. Below 80% avoids private mortgage insurance on a conventional loan.
Credit score. It sets your rate tier, not just your approval. A modest improvement can move you a tier, which is worth real money over the life of the loan.

Note that the payment they qualify you against includes property taxes and homeowner's insurance, and in Greater Boston taxes are a serious number. A condominium's monthly fee counts too. The affordability calculators will show you how much a given fee or tax bill moves the payment.

Get more than one quote

Rate, points, lender fees and mortgage insurance interact, and the lowest advertised rate is often not the lowest cost. Ask each lender for a Loan Estimate — a standardised federal form — and compare them line by line rather than comparing rates over the phone. Applications made within a short window count as a single inquiry for credit scoring purposes, so shopping does not damage your score.

A local lender or a broker who works this market daily has one advantage worth paying a little for: they close on time. In a competitive offer, a lender the listing agent has dealt with before is a genuine asset.

Programmes worth asking about in Massachusetts

If you are a first-time buyer, ask specifically about MassHousing and the Massachusetts Housing Partnership's ONE Mortgage programme, alongside FHA and — if you qualify — VA. Terms, income limits and down payment assistance change, so treat the current programme sheet as the authority rather than anything you read online, including this. First-time buyer programmes in Massachusetts goes through what each one is for.

What kills a loan after approval

The approval is conditional and the conditions run until the day you close. Between pre-approval and closing, do not:

Change jobs, or move from salaried to self-employed. Lenders re-verify employment days before closing.
Open new credit. A furniture store card, a car loan, a new phone financed over 24 months — each one changes your debt-to-income and can be enough to fail.
Make large unexplained deposits or withdrawals.
Miss a payment on anything.
Close old credit cards, which can lower your score by shortening your credit history and raising utilisation.

Buying the sofa before the house is a real and recurring way to lose the house.

How long is a pre-approval good for?

Typically 60 to 90 days, after which the credit pull and the documents need refreshing. Ask your lender to update it when it lapses rather than letting an expired letter go out with an offer.

Ask for the letter to be tailored

A pre-approval letter for your maximum will be read by the listing agent as your ceiling. Ask your lender for a letter written at the offer amount. It costs nothing and it removes a piece of information from the other side of the negotiation.

The buyer's guide sets out the whole sequence from here, and offer contingencies explains what the mortgage contingency is doing in your offer.

General guidance current as of 2026. Programme terms, ratios and rates change; your lender's current sheet governs.