I'm sitting in a continuing education class right now.  I can't even begin to tell you how much fun that I'm having.  But.....as an attorney and as a lender I can tell you this. 

A realtor can't rely on a lender's pre-approval.

In other words, the pre-approval letter isn't what you think it is!

That was hard for me to hear, but in truth, it makes a lot of sense.  Larry Bettag, lender extraordinaire, Michael Superstar, world class lender, and even Bill Gates, Licensed Loan Officer, can't issue a real pre-approval.  Why?  Because they didn't approve the loan. 

Pre-approval implies that the client was approved.  Joe superstar reviews the data.  Mary Lender ran it through automated undewriting, but neither of them approved the loan yet they, er, we, issue a pre-approval.  I hear realtors say "I don't want a pre-qualification.  I want a pre-approval."  It ain't happening.  Your getting a pre-qualification.  Sure, there are those few loan leads that actually go to underwriting because the lender knows for a fact that it's a difficult deal that needs to go to underwriting before the deal is taken.

So let's not play games here.  We call them pre-approvals, but 99% of your pre-approval letters are nothing more than a pre-qualification. 

That's why its imperative to work with a lender that has integrity, experience and knows what they're doing.