Few people can save up the cash required to buy a house. If you're contemplating buying your first house, your first stop will probably be your local bank to inquire about a mortgage. When you talk to the mortgage officer, they will ask you to provide several documents. 

Various documents will be required at different stages of the application process, from pre-qualification to the final closing of the real estate deal.

What you need for mortgage pre-qualification

Getting pre-qualified for a home loan allows you to gauge how much you are eligible to borrow based on your income. It will help you be more realistic when shopping for a home and frees your real estate agent to scan through listings with confidence. Homeowners or listing agents will give your offer priority if backed by a pre-qualification letter. It is comparable to the bank vouching for you, saying you have the power to make the purchase. In order to become pre-qualified, your bank will ask for:

- Your full names and the names any co-buyer

- Your current address

- Your net worth

- Sources of income

- The estimated annual income of your household

- The estimated yearly household debt expenses

What you need for mortgage pre-approval

Pre-qualification is optional, though it comes with several advantages and literally costs you nothing to do. Once you're through with that step, you can move on to the actual mortgage application. The first step of that is to apply for pre-approval by filling the full mortgage application form. Below are some of the critical bits of information you will need to supply for this:

- All of your checking and savings bank account statements for the past few months

- Asset statements for items you will use as security for the loan

- Your current residential address

- Address history over the past two years

- Addresses and names of your landlords over the past two years

- Paycheck stubs over the past few months

- W-2 or I-9 forms for each of the past two years from your employer

- Two years of tax returns if you're self-employed

After submitting this information, there will be a waiting period at the end of which your application will be approved or rejected. If their response is positive, you can begin the process of closing the deal.

Contact your local bank and find out what you need to do to get a loan.