Pre-qualification
Do I qualify, and for how much?
Three things decide it: what you earn, what you already owe each month, and what you have in cash. Put them in and the figure below is what they reach — with the Texas property tax inside the payment, which is the line most national calculators leave out.
1. What you earn and what you owe
2. What you have to put down
3. The rest of the picture
Worked at 5% down. A first-time buyer can often do 3%, which this does not assume — ask me. Mortgage insurance comes off at 80% of value, which FHA's does not.
On what you have told me
$606,000
Purchase price, conventional, putting $48,000 down and paying near $5,400 a month.
That deposit is most of your cash, not all of it — the rest is for closing. This programme would accept as little as $30,300 down, which buys the same house on a bigger loan and a higher payment.
Where the payment goes
- Principal & interest$3,827
- Property tax$1,010
- Insurance$200
- Mortgage insurance$363
HOA, MUD and PID are not in this. In parts of Collin and Denton a MUD adds meaningfully to the monthly figure, so treat it as a ceiling rather than a target.
Want it as a letter you can forward?
Realtors ask for one before they’ll write an offer. I read every request myself before anything goes out, because the letter carries my NMLS ID and it should mean I looked. Usually same day.
Disclaimer: A pre-qualification is arithmetic on figures you provide, not a credit decision. Nothing here verifies income, employment or assets, no credit report is obtained, and this is not a loan approval, a commitment to lend or an offer of credit. Worked at 7.304% — the national 30-year average from Optimal Blue Mortgage Market Indices, via FRED as of 2026-10-21, which is not a rate anyone is offered — over 30 years, with a county property tax estimate, $2,400 a year for insurance and mortgage insurance where the deposit is under 20%. Ratios are deliberately conservative; automated underwriting regularly goes further.
Loans by Vai
What this is, and what it is not
The two words get used interchangeably and they are not the same thing. The difference matters most at the point somebody is writing an offer.
A pre-qualification is arithmetic
It runs on figures you state. Nothing is verified, no credit is pulled, and it takes a minute. That is exactly why it can be instant — and exactly why a seller in a competitive position will want more.
A pre-approval is a decision
Credit pulled, income and assets documented, run through automated underwriting against a particular lender. It takes longer, it is worth more, and it is the thing to have in hand before you are up against a deadline rather than during one.
The ratios here are deliberately cautious
Conventional files regularly pass at a 50% total debt ratio and FHA nearer 57% with compensating factors. This works at 45% and 50%, because the only version of this number that actually costs somebody a house is the optimistic one.
Tax is why Texas figures look different
At 2–2.3% of value a year, property tax is inside the payment and therefore inside the ratio. The same income buys meaningfully less house here than a national calculator suggests, and that gap is not a rounding error.
When you want the real thing
A pre-approval runs through my sponsor's system, where credit and documents can actually be read. It is the same form whether you start it now or in three months, and starting it early costs nothing.