Does a credit report inquiry impact my credit score and mortgage approval chances

The short answer is, "not much." In fact, a hard credit inquiry only drops your score by a few points, at the most, 5. So don't worry about those credit pulls mortgage lenders or mortgage apps request as part of their prequalification or quote process. Unless your credit score is very low to begin with, those few points aren't going to change anything.

In fact, according to Experian (one of the "big three" credit bureaus), "...hard inquiries related to mortgage, auto loan and student loan applications are entirely ignored for 30 days from the date of the inquiry."

And even after those 30 days, Experian states, "After those inquiries have aged past 30 days, they still may not be counted as independent inquiries by credit scoring models. That's because FICO^® considers similar loan-related inquiries that have occurred within 45 days of each other as a single inquiry in the scoring process."

So go ahead and get that quote, prequalification, or application started! You're good. 

Read more from Experian about how credit inquiries impact (or don't impact) your loan application/approval.