loan preapproval

[http://dummy.us.eu.org/robert (Robert)]

According to Home Buying for Dummies, preapproval is only good for 30 days.
So, we should only consider it if we're intent on buying something within
30 days.

Unless we want to risk throwing away $1200 on the flight to Boston, it
seems like we should wait until we return from Boston to complete this.
(Unless, of course, you want to punt on the Boston idea and go to Esalen
and/or somewhere else instead.)

In any case, both the Home Buying for Dummies and the Nolo Press books
have checklists of what to bring for documentation for preapproval.  These
include:

 * Original paystubs for the last 30 days
 * W-2 forms from the last 2 years
 * Tax forms from the last 2 years (I have these)
 * Rental history (you already have that)
 * Recent credit cards statements from all credit cards
 * Bank statements for the last 3 months
 * IRA statements for the last 3 months (I may have to print out my
   Ameritade accounts data)
 * 401K statements for the last 3 months
 * Current landlord's name, phone number and address (we don't have this)
 * Car registration
 * Social security card
 * Payment for background credit checks

Although we probably don't need to have all this in a single stack, we
should have a cheatsheet to point to a place to get all these documents.

If you want to get prequalification, we can do this any time and don't
need such extensive documentation.  But, of course, it doesn't carry the
weight and pull of a preapproved loan.