Hopefully, one of the realtors on the board will chime in, as they are better qualified to answer.

I don't think it really matters that much in terms of sellers. You know what you are willing to pay for the home. So whether you are preapproved for 50K more than the house is worth or not isn't relevant. It's what you are willing to pay. I'm sure there are some sellers out there who think that they might be able to negotiate higher because you could pay more, but being able to pay more doesn't mean you'd be willing to pay more.

I get one for the offer amount, and when we settle on a sale price, send am updated one with contract price. I'm a Realtor, by the way.

I have my buyers get preapproved for their max amount, or the max amount of a mortgage they feel comfortable with, so we don't look at houses they can't afford. But the offer preapproval letter matches offer, or within a thousand or so.

I have the lenders that I work with to not include any dollar amount nor any address of a particular home.

thanks! One realtor we interviewed mentioned doing this, but the ones we worked with in the past never did. I thought it was a little weird but it seems to be common. As a seller, I would be worried if the preapproval was just for the exact amount of the loan, I would wonder if they spent any money at all that the closing would fail to go through.

But I guess its not uncommon so I'll have to check with our bank whether that is something they are willing to do.

When I sold my dad's house a few months ago, the preapproval letter the buyer provided matched his offer to the penny. I actually wondered if he was totally maxing out his budget, but his was the best offer so I accepted it without ever finding out. :)