You have stomach pains, a fever, and you’re nauseous. You call the doctor to schedule an appointment. Your doctor says you need to rush to the emergency room because it sounds like you have appendicitis. You take his advice and quickly hurry off. At check-in, you describe your symptoms and out rolls the gurney. They tell you to lie down and whisk you off to surgery. You look around and loudly proclaim to the ones in scrubs, what’s happening? The surgeon speaks up and says, well it sounds like you have appendicitis, so we are just going to operate. Whoa, you say. You are going to put me under and slice me open with no other tests or exams? The surgeon states, well, you gave us enough information to qualify you for appendicitis. We see no need to waste time with tests to confirm you do, in fact, have appendicitis. We’ll just roll the dice and see what happens.

If this were you, would running a few tests to confirm you indeed have appendicitis make you feel a little better about the surgery? If so, you should have the same frame of mind when it comes to getting a pre-approval rather than a pre-qualification. What is a pre-qualification? Why is a pre-approval necessary for the serious San Mateo home buyer? Read our full post, Pre-Approval: Just What the Doctor Ordered for the San Mateo Home Buyer, and find out.