Roanoke, VA · Lakeland, FL 540.314.8843 jsweat@ihmcloans.com
The Pre-Approval Difference

Pre-approval vs pre-qualification.
Why one closes.

Most lenders run a credit pull and call it a pre-qual. We fully underwrite your file before you make an offer. Here is what that costs them, and what it earns you.

NMLS #308553 · Licensed in VA + FL · 30+ years in the industry
At a Glance

Pre-qualification vs pre-approval, side by side.

Both conversations start the same way. Both end with a piece of paper. Only one of them holds up when an offer goes in. Start your underwritten pre-approval →

Pre-Qualification · Most Lenders

The five-minute estimate.

A surface-level look. Useful for a price range. Not strong enough to win a contract.

  • Soft credit pull, often skipped entirely
  • Five-minute self-reported income and assets
  • No underwriter has reviewed the file
  • Letter is conditional, not a real commitment
  • Weak in multiple-offer situations
  • Risk of surprises three weeks before closing
Pre-Approval · The Legacy Team

The fully underwritten letter.

A real loan commitment, vetted by an underwriter before your offer ever goes out the door.

  • Hard credit pull with full tradeline review
  • Full income, asset, and debt verification
  • Underwriter review BEFORE you make an offer
  • A real commitment letter, not a template
  • Strong in multi-offer and competitive markets
  • No surprises three weeks before close
The Payoff

A pre-approval that actually closes.

Inside the Process

Underwriting before you offer.
Not after.

"Pre-approved" should mean a human underwriter has read your file and signed off on the numbers. On most lender desks it does not. On ours it does, every time. Meet the team behind the letter →

Step 01

Documents in

W-2s, recent pay stubs, two months of bank statements, federal tax returns, and a government ID. Self-employed buyers add P&Ls. We tell you exactly what we need.

Step 02

Underwriter review

An actual human reads your file. Income calculated. Assets sourced. Liabilities reconciled. Credit reviewed line by line. Not a chatbot, not an algorithm alone.

Step 03

Conditions issued

If anything needs cleaning up before close (a deposit to source, an address mismatch, a tax-return year), you know now. Not the day before signing.

Step 04

Letter issued

A real pre-approval letter, on Integrity Home Mortgage letterhead, signed and dated. The letter listing agents recognize, on a contract that holds up.

For Listing Agents

Why Realtors trust the letter.

Listing agents read pre-approval letters every day. They know which lenders close on time and which ones do not. They know which letters are five-minute pre-quals and which ones came back from underwriting before the offer was written.

When a Realtor sees Jonathan Sweat's name on a letter, they know one thing for certain: the deal will close. Same team start to finish. Direct line to the loan officer. No call-center handoffs. No three-week-out surprises that put the contract at risk.

That recognition is why Realtors across the Roanoke Valley and Tampa Bay refer their buyers here. It is why offers backed by our letter compete in multi-offer situations. It is the brand asset.

Placeholder · awaiting Realtor quote From a referring Realtor

"When I see Jonathan's name on a pre-approval letter, I tell my seller the same thing every time: this one will close."

[PLACEHOLDER · awaiting attribution from a real referring agent]

#308553 NMLS · Verified
30+yrs Loan Officer
2023 Best of Roanoke
5.0 Zillow + Google + Facebook
The Contract Test

When the offer is multiple,
the letter is the line.

Three scenarios we see weekly. The strength of the letter is the difference between an offer that gets accepted and one that gets buried under the file. For Realtors overview →

Scenario · Multi-Offer

The 2 a.m. pre-qual letter Realtors do not trust.

An online lender drops a pre-qual letter at midnight. No underwriter reviewed it. The listing agent has seen letters from this shop fall apart at financing contingency. The seller picks the underwritten letter instead.

Underwritten letter wins
Scenario · List-Price Match

Two list-price offers. The letter decides.

Same price, same close date, same earnest money. One letter is a five-minute pre-qual. The other came back from underwriting two days ago. The seller takes the offer that will not blow up at the appraisal.

Underwritten letter wins
Scenario · Tight Timeline

The contingency-free offer that closes on time.

Seller wants to close in 21 days. A pre-qual buyer cannot promise that, the file has not been underwritten yet. Our buyer can. The underwriter has already reviewed the income, the assets, the credit. We close on the seller's timeline.

Closes on time
Don't take our word for it

The federal regulator agrees on the difference.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau publishes a clear, plain-English explainer on the difference between pre-qualification and pre-approval. Read it before you sign anything from anyone, ours included.

For Buyers

What buyers ask first.

The four questions every buyer wants answered before they hand over their tax returns. Have other questions? →

How long does an underwritten pre-approval take?
Most files are fully underwritten within 24 to 48 hours of receiving your documents. Faster if your file is straightforward, a little longer if we need updated tax returns or self-employment paperwork. The bottleneck is almost never us, it is how quickly the documents come in.
Does a hard credit pull hurt my score?
Minimal impact. Mortgage credit pulls typically move a score by less than five points, and the dip recovers in 30 to 60 days. Multiple mortgage pulls inside a 45-day window count as one inquiry under FICO scoring rules, so shopping lenders responsibly will not stack damage.
What if I do not have all the documents yet?
We tell you exactly what is needed and in what order. Most buyers can pull the core documents (W-2s, recent pay stubs, two months of bank statements, ID) in under an hour using their employer portal and online banking. Self-employed buyers, gig income, recent job changes, all have a clear path. Nothing is a dead end on a first call.
How long is the pre-approval valid?
60 to 90 days, depending on the document set. We refresh the letter quickly when needed, often the same day, so you stay competitive while you shop. If your situation changes during the search (new job, big purchase, paid-off debt), tell us. We re-run the numbers and reissue.
For Realtors

What listing agents ask.

Direct answers for Realtors checking a letter, fielding a question from a seller, or sending a buyer over for the first time. For Realtors overview →

How do I confirm a pre-approval is real?
Call Jonathan directly at 540.314.8843. Listing agents who want a verbal confirmation get one inside business hours. Need it in writing for the seller? We send a confirmation email the same day. No call-center handoff, no "the LO is unavailable." Same team start to finish.
What happens if rates change between letter and offer?
We re-run debt-to-income with the new rate before your offer goes in. If anything tightens, we know before the contract does, not the day before close. If we need to reissue the letter at a slightly different number, the buyer hears it from us first, in plain English, with options.
Can I refer a buyer in Florida?
Yes. Jonathan is licensed in Virginia (MLO-5807VA) and Florida (LO110533). We close regularly across the Roanoke Valley and the Lakeland and Tampa markets. Same team, same standard, same letter. Cross-state referrals from Virginia Realtors with Florida-bound clients (and the reverse) are routine.
Ready when you are

Ready to compete with a real letter?

Most buyers are fully underwritten in 48 hours. From there, you shop with confidence and your offer carries the weight Realtors recognize. The next step is the application. The conversation starts the same way it always has, with a real person.

Or call 540.314.8843 and ask for Jonathan directly.