What you need to get started

Getting a first read on your Buying Power takes about two minutes and zero paperwork. Documents only enter the picture later — when you decide to turn an estimate into a number you can make offers with. Here’s exactly what’s needed at each stage.

Step 1: five rough numbers

For the first estimate, ballpark answers are enough:

• Yearly household income — before taxes.
• Monthly debt payments — car loans, student loans, credit card minimums.
• Savings you’d put toward the purchase — down payment plus closing costs.
• A credit range — excellent, good, fair. A guess is fine.
• Where you’re buying — state or ZIP, so local taxes and insurance are baked in.

What you deliberately don’t need

Seeing your Buying Power takes a free account and nothing more: no Social Security number, no documents, and no credit check — soft or hard. Nothing is pulled until you explicitly choose to verify. Browse listings against your estimate as long as you like.

When you’re ready to verify

Verifying replaces guesses with real figures — usually by securely connecting accounts rather than uploading anything. This uses a soft credit check, which doesn’t affect your score, and tightens your estimate into a range you can trust when shortlisting homes.

The documents for offer-ready

The final step is a lender-verified pre-approval — the letter sellers trust. Lenders typically ask for:

• Pay stubs — the most recent 30 days.
• W-2s — past two years (plus federal tax returns if you’re self-employed or commissioned).
• Bank statements — two most recent months, showing your down-payment funds.
• Photo ID — and a gift letter, if part of your down payment is a gift.

Worth doing: drop these in one folder now. When you find the home, a same-day pre-approval is the difference between offering first and offering second.