Do Not Do This Between Pre-Approval and Closing

Why this list exists

Your pre-approval was based on a picture of your finances on a specific day. Before funding, the lender takes that picture again. If the two do not match, the file gets re-underwritten — sometimes fine, sometimes not.

Most of the deals that fall apart late fall apart here, and almost all of it is avoidable. Nobody does these things maliciously. They do them because nobody told them not to.

The actual list

Do not open new credit. Not a store card for the appliance discount. Not financing furniture "with no payments until next year." Not a new phone on an installment plan. A new account changes your obligations, and the pre-closing credit refresh will find it.

Do not finance a car. This is the one that kills the most deals. A car payment is a large recurring obligation, and it lands directly on the ratio the underwriter used to approve the file.

Do not close old accounts either. People try to help by tidying up. Closing a long-standing account can move a credit score in the wrong direction at the worst possible moment. Do nothing.

Do not change jobs, if you can avoid it. Employment is verified again shortly before closing. A change is not automatically fatal — same industry, same or higher pay, salaried to salaried is often workable — but it must be disclosed and reviewed, and moving from salaried to self-employed or commission-only mid-file is a genuine problem. If a change is coming, tell your loan officer before it happens, not after.

Do not move money between accounts. Every transfer creates a deposit that has to be sourced. Moving your down payment from savings to checking "so it is ready" generates work for no benefit. Leave it where it is.

Do not take cash deposits. Cash that appears in an account with no traceable origin generally cannot be used, no matter how legitimate it was. If you sold something, keep the bill of sale and take payment in a traceable form.

Do not co-sign anything for anyone. A co-signed obligation is your obligation on the report.

Do not let anyone else pull your credit. Rate shopping for the mortgage itself within a short window is treated sensibly by scoring models. Applying for unrelated credit is not.

Do not skip a payment on anything. Not the one you are disputing. Not the one you are about to pay off. A late payment appearing mid-file is a serious problem.

The two rules that cover almost all of it

1. Nothing new. No new accounts, no new obligations, no new employment, no new money you cannot explain.
2. Tell me first. If life genuinely requires one of these, say so before it happens. Almost everything on this list is manageable with notice and unmanageable as a surprise found by the refresh.

If you already did one of these

Say so today. Right now. The gap between "we found this in the refresh three days before closing" and "you told us six weeks out" is the difference between a scramble and a non-event.

Nobody is going to be annoyed with you. Send a message and we will look at what it actually did to the file.