After our pre-qualification meeting, if you decide to go forward with the pre-approval process, we will verify your assets, income and any other information  you have provided. I will then submit these items to a particular lender, under a specific loan program and interest rate. This process can take between 1 hour and 7 days, depending on the loan program and lender I will be using.

Normally, if your credit is good, and you have supplied me with all of the requested documentation, the pre-approval should arrive within 1 to 3 days after we submit your paperwork to the lender. In the meantime, you can start shopping for a home.

Prior to 1999, home buyers would find a house, make an offer with a 30 day financing contingency and then apply for a home loan. The hot market of the early 2000's changed all that. Because the inventory of homes available for sale in the Bay Area has remained low since 1999 or so, buyers have found it useful to write their offers with a pre-approval letter attached.  

As a competitive strategy, buyers should write offers that are as "clean" as possible, i.e., with no financing contingency and a quick close of escrow -- this still holds true in 2008 in San Francisco, Marin and parts of the East Bay.

It has therefore become imperative that buyers have a preapproved loan in place before they even begin to shop for a home. Why?  When a contract is written without a financing contingency, it is difficult to safely back out of the contract if your financing falls through -- thus, you must know that your financing is solid at the time you write your offer.