The most obvious is that you cannot afford to buy the house in cash and need to make installment payments on it over the next 15 to 30 years.
Getting a property under contract is a prerequisite to moving forward with the lending process because the bank will need to consider the property you are buying.
Most lenders will use what is called a 1003 Uniform Residential Loan Application. If you do not see this application and are going through a conforming loan process, there is a good chance that you are going through a bank’s questionnaire and filling out details so that their software can fill out the form for you.
Most people do not like going through the underwriting phase. This phase is where the loan officer takes your completed application package with all the documentation and delivers it to an underwriter for review.