HOME BUYING
From Listings to Living
You got pre-approved in March, made two offers on houses in the Heights in Houston, lost both, and it is now June. The letter in your inbox has a date at the bottom that has already passed. Your agent wants to write a new offer tonight. Are you still pre-approved?
How long is a mortgage pre-approval good for? The letter itself usually carries an expiration date set by the lender, and Freddie Mac's homebuyer guide tells buyers they can generally expect a pre-approval letter to stay valid for 30 to 90 days. The harder limit sits underneath the letter. Fannie Mae requires credit documents, meaning the credit report and the employment, income and asset paperwork, to be no more than four months old on the note date, and FHA says documents may not be more than 120 days old at disbursement. Once your paperwork ages out, the lender has to update it, whatever the letter says.
So the practical answer is that a pre-approval lasts as long as the documents behind it stay current and nothing in your finances changes. Renewing is usually a matter of sending fresh pay stubs and statements, and sometimes a new credit pull. What a pre-approval is and how to get one in the first place is covered in our mortgage pre-approval guide; this article is about the clock.
Leevli Editorial Team
Several timers run at once, and they are set by different people. The lender picks the date on the letter. Fannie Mae, FHA and the other loan programs set how old the documents can be when the loan closes. Your rate lock, if you have one, runs on its own schedule.
| Clock | How long | Who sets it | What happens when it runs out |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pre-approval letter | Generally 30 to 90 days, per Freddie Mac | Your lender | Ask for a refreshed letter; the lender may want updated documents |
| Credit documents, conventional loans sold to Fannie Mae | No more than four months old on the note date | Fannie Mae Selling Guide B1-1-03 | The lender must update them |
| Documents, FHA loans | No more than 120 days old at the disbursement date | HUD Handbook 4000.1 | New documents before closing |
| Employment check, conventional | Verbal verification no more than 10 business days before the note date | Fannie Mae Selling Guide B3-3.1-04 | A call to your employer days before closing |
| Employment check, FHA | Reverification within 10 days before the note date | HUD Handbook 4000.1 | Same: a final check right before closing |
| Rate lock | Typically 30, 45 or 60 days, sometimes longer | Your lender | Extend it, which may be expensive, or relock at the current rate |
The preapproval validity period printed on the letter is a business choice. The document rules are what the loan has to satisfy to be sold or insured, so they are the ones that bind.
Fannie Mae's rule on the allowable age of credit documents applies to credit reports and to employment, income and asset documentation. When the file has consecutive documents, such as two monthly bank statements, the most recent one is the one that counts, and it must be no more than four months old on the note date. If documents are older than that, "the lender must update them."
FHA's version is in HUD's Single Family Housing Policy Handbook 4000.1, under the maximum age of mortgage documents: documents used to originate and underwrite the mortgage may not be more than 120 days old at the disbursement date. Appraisals follow their own validity rules, and documents whose usefulness does not fade with time, such as divorce decrees or tax returns, are exempt. HUD counts day one as the day after the document's effective or issue date, whichever is later.
A worked timeline shows how the clocks drift apart. These dates are illustrative and assume a 2027 purchase.
| Item | Dated | Stale after (Fannie Mae, four months) | Stale after (FHA, 120 days) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Latest bank statement | January 31 | May 31 | May 31 |
| Latest pay stub | February 26 | June 26 | June 26 |
| Credit report | March 2 | July 2 | June 30 |
| Pre-approval letter (60-day term chosen by this lender) | March 3 | Letter expires May 2 | Letter expires May 2 |
If this buyer goes under contract in May and closes on June 15, the letter has already expired and the bank statement has aged out, but the credit report and pay stub are still usable. The lender will ask for a newer statement and a fresh letter, and will still verify employment in the final days before closing. Nothing has gone wrong. That is how a normal file gets updated.
A letter can be dead long before its date if the facts it was built on change. The CFPB's rate lock explainer lists the changes that can move even a locked rate: switching loan type or down payment, an appraisal that comes in higher or lower than expected, a credit score change because you took out a new loan or missed a payment, and income the lender cannot document. The same events can undo a pre-approval.
Tell your loan officer before you make any of these changes, not after. Some can be worked around if the lender knows early.
Renewing a pre-approval usually means replacing whatever has aged out. Expect requests for:
A new credit pull is an inquiry, but the CFPB's guidance on mortgage credit checks says multiple checks from mortgage lenders within 45 days are recorded as one, and that even outside that window the effect of an additional inquiry is small. If your original pull was months ago, assume the renewal will add one.
Renewal is also a natural moment to shop again. If you are no longer happy with your lender's pricing or service, a second lender can issue a fresh letter from the same updated documents. Once you have a specific property, the lender must send a Loan Estimate within three business days of receiving six pieces of information, and the CFPB's page on applying for a mortgage warns that if you do not tell a lender you intend to proceed within 10 business days, it may revise the estimate or close the application.
Getting pre-approved too early wastes the letter. Getting it too late costs you the first good house. A workable sequence:
Renters have a second clock. Say you rent in South End in Charlotte and your lease ends August 31. If you expect to close in late August, you need to know how much notice your lease requires; our guide to writing a 30-day notice to your landlord covers timing and content. If the purchase lands mid-lease, compare the overlap in rent with the cost of breaking a lease before you pick a closing date.
Condo buyers should add time for the building review. A loan can stall while the lender waits for the association's questionnaire or checks the project against FHA or conventional rules, which our guide to FHA qualified condos explains. A buyer hunting for a condo in Ballard in Seattle with a letter that expires in three weeks should ask the lender to start that review the day an offer is accepted.
The clock depends on who will buy or insure the loan:
If your credit was the reason a pre-approval took a long time or came with conditions, see our guide to loans with a bad credit history before you let the letter lapse; a few months of clean payments can change your options at renewal.
A mortgage preapproval expiration is not a denial. It means the lender has not looked at you recently. If a listing agent in Sugar House in Salt Lake City asks for a current letter tonight, call your loan officer, send whatever new pay stubs and statements you have, and ask for a letter dated today for the offer price. If nothing has changed in your finances, the update is mostly paperwork; if something has, it is better to find out now than during underwriting.
For a second opinion on timing in a specific neighborhood, residents who bought recently can tell you how long their deals took from offer to keys on Ask a Resident. Your lender remains the only one who can confirm that your file is current.
Residents who closed recently know how long deals in this market actually take, which tells you how much life your letter needs.
Listings show the property, but they rarely explain the lived reality around it. On Leevli, a mover can explore the city, review neighborhood and building information, and ask a verified resident the specific questions that remain unanswered. That human layer helps readers know what to investigate before signing a lease, making an offer, or choosing between two addresses.
The letter usually states its own expiration date, and Freddie Mac says buyers can generally expect 30 to 90 days. The binding limit is document age: Fannie Mae wants credit documents no more than four months old on the note date, and FHA allows 120 days at disbursement. Once documents age out, the lender updates them, so plan on refreshing paperwork if your search runs long.
As long as your lender keeps refreshing it. If your search runs for months, expect to send updated pay stubs and bank statements whenever the letter or the documents near their limits, and to receive a new letter each time. The credit report may also need replacing once it nears the four-month or 120-day limit. Keep your documents organized so each refresh takes one email.
Only if the lender pulls a new report, and the effect is usually small. The CFPB says multiple mortgage credit checks within a 45-day window count as a single inquiry. A renewal months after the first pull will normally add one inquiry. Avoid applying for any other credit at the same time, since that is a separate inquiry and a new payment.
An expired letter does not by itself end your contract, but the lender will update your documents and may reissue the approval. What matters at that point is whether your documents meet the age limits at closing and whether your finances changed. If your rate is locked, check the lock's end date separately, because extending it can cost money.
It can. Lenders verify employment again right before closing: within 10 business days of the note date for conventional loans sold to Fannie Mae, and within 10 days for FHA. A new employer, a different pay structure or a gap in work may require new documents or change the loan amount. Talk to your loan officer before you accept a new offer.
They are close but measured differently. Fannie Mae counts four months to the note date, the day you sign. FHA counts 120 days to the disbursement date and starts with the day after a document's issue date. Tax returns and divorce decrees are exempt from FHA's limit because their usefulness does not fade. VA and USDA have their own rules.
A renewal may involve nothing more than new documents, but lender policies differ and a new credit report carries a cost the lender may pass on later as a closing charge. Ask your loan officer whether there is any fee for a refreshed letter. The larger cost risk is a rate lock extension, which the CFPB notes may be expensive.
Shortly before. Checking your credit and budget can start months ahead, but a letter obtained too early may lapse before you find a home. A practical target is two to four weeks before you start touring seriously, which keeps the documents fresh when offers begin. If your search stretches, plan on at least one refresh.
Usually not. A pre-approval says the lender is willing to lend; a rate lock is a separate commitment, typically for 30, 45 or 60 days according to the CFPB. If rates rise while you search, your payment estimate and possibly your approved amount change too. Lock once you have an accepted offer and a realistic closing date.
Sending the old letter with a new offer. A listing agent can see the date, and it suggests nobody has reviewed your finances recently. The second mistake is assuming the old amount still holds after a new car loan, a raise in HOA dues or a rate increase. Ask your lender for an updated letter dated for the new offer.
This article is informational and does not constitute legal, financial, tax or insurance advice.
