Issue pre-approval letter

Overview

AUS came back Approve/Eligible (or Accept) — now the borrower gets their letter. The pre-approval letter is both the borrower's shopping credential and, for many of them, the emotional payoff of the whole process so far. Speed matters here: the gap between "you're approved" on the phone and the letter in their inbox should be minutes, not days.

Generating the letter

The letter is generated in Arive from the company template.

Scribe walkthrough pending — generating the pre-approval letter from the Arive template.

Letter amount: ask the borrower

Before issuing, ask the borrower what price range they're shopping. The letter strategy is borrower-driven:

• Keep the letter amount within their shopping range — not automatically at max qualification.
• Tell them they qualify for more (when true), and that you can update the letter to match any offer in minutes.

This does two things: the borrower shops with a number that matches their actual intent, and when their offer lands on a seller's desk, the letter doesn't advertise how much more they could pay — which protects their negotiating position.

Who gets it

Send the letter to the borrower and their realtor (if they have one). The realtor is going to attach it to offers — getting it in their hands directly saves the borrower a forwarding step and puts you in the realtor's inbox as the responsive lender on this deal.

Updated letters: on demand, any time

The service standard: updated letters go out on demand, nights and weekends included. Offers get written at 8pm on a Saturday, and a letter matched to the offer price is often the difference between the offer going in tonight or Monday. When a borrower or realtor asks for an updated letter, that's a now task, not a tomorrow task.

Letter shelf life: 90 days

The pre-approval letter is good for 90 days — tied to the credit report behind it. When the credit report expires, so does the letter. For long shoppers, that means a fresh hard pull and a re-verification that nothing has changed before a new letter goes out. This is the moment new debt or missed payments surface — see the coaching note in Pull credit: no new debt while house hunting.

While they shop: staying in touch

Once the letter is out, the borrower enters shopping mode — which can last weeks or months. Staying in touch is the LO's personal responsibility. There is currently no automated nurture for pre-approved shoppers; no system checks in on them if you don't. Build your own rhythm — a check-in text every week or two, a call after they tour homes, whatever fits your style. A pre-approved borrower who doesn't hear from you is a pre-approved borrower another lender can steal at offer time.

Known gap: automating pre-approved-shopper nurture is on the company roadmap. Until it exists, manual follow-up is the process.

Common pitfalls

Letting the letter (and credit) expire mid-shop

Track your pre-approved shoppers' 90-day windows. A borrower who finds their house in month four with expired credit needs a re-pull before an updated letter can go out — bad time to discover they financed furniture in month two.

Skipping the milestone update

Covered in the callout above. Letter out = milestone to Pre-Approved. Every time.

Slow letter updates

An offer that goes in without a matched letter, or waits overnight for one, is a worse offer. On-demand means on-demand.

Going quiet during the shop

The pre-approval is the start of the relationship, not the end of your job. Silent LOs lose funded loans to whoever the listing agent recommends at offer time.

Who to ask if you're stuck

Letter template issues in Arive: Bryce or Dean.
Whether to re-verify before an updated letter (big price jump, months since AUS): Bryce or Dean.