I've been helping Kevin and June look for a home in the $220,000 range for 2 weeks. They are moving down from a beautiful $700,000 home previously valued at over $1m. They simply want to downsize; the kids are gone and they want to get their San Diego condo paid off before they retire.

Their home is stunning - the pool and landscaping cost nearly $200,000. The home is immaculate and tasteful. So, finding a home in the $220,00 range that they will love has been a challenge.

Last night a listing popped up for a home that sounded good on paper. June and I ran right over to see it, and she loved it. It's a nice 1-story, 2500 sq/ft home in Mountains Edge with great landscaping and the 3-car garage they needed. The home was listed at $230,000, and was far superior to the 1-story homes we've already viewed in the $210,000 - $220,000 range.

When we arrived after 6:30 another agent was showing the home. It had been on the market for a few hours and had already been shown at least 3 times, and after dark at that. The bank's agent wanted 2 to 3 days for a response, and I knew there would be offers coming in the following day, when mere mortal agents got around to showing it to their clients. There was no time to waste, and I convinced June to write the slightly-above-full price offer immediately.

At 10:00 p.m., when I had the signed offer back from Kevin and June, I submitted the offer to the bank's agent. I asked him to send it to the bank early today, even though we didn't have the Countrywide prequal letter that was needed. I had a prequal letter from Direct Access Lending, but often the banks try to regain some of their loss on REOs by capturing mortgage business; by forcing buyers to prequal with their institution they have a shot at the loan.

No problem - I knew my buyers could qualify. What I didn't know when I begged that agent to submit last night without the CW prequal was that my buyers had ignored their loan officer's pleas to send her what she needed for a preapproval. When I asked their DAL loan officer to get the Countrywide prequal letter for us this morning, I learned Kevin hadn't sent the agent the documentation she had requested. Countrywide won't issue a prequal letter without seeing the documentation.

My clients have high FICOs and have great income. Often, when people know they can buy, they ignore my advice to have the prequal in hand when we go shopping. Nothing is more heartbreaking than missing out on the perfect home because you were so sure you could just get the prequal when you found a home you liked! On a clean REO priced to sell, it's likely others will want the house as well. Waiting for the bank's preferred mortgage agent to get around to prequalifying you can take a day or two. In the meantime, if other offers come in you now have competition.

I have another client who just waited FIVE days for the bank's preferred agent to contact her and provide the prequal. The agent refused to submit the offer to the bank's asset manager until the bank's preferred agent prepared his own prequal letter. The house is a mess, so it's unlikely we'll be competing on this one. But if we'd waited even a day or two for the prequal on a more desireable home we may have been out of luck.

As for Kevin and June - we got lucky. The agent agreed to submit the offer early this morning, and we had an acceptance before the other offers could pour in. I'm sure it was the "pretty please with sugar on top" that got him to give me special treatment; I'm not ashamed to beg. But he shouldn't have accepted it without that, and we should have lost this opportunity. I had to promise the CW prequal tomorrow along with my next-born (fooled him!).

Please, dear friends and readers, heed my advice. Have a prequal letter in hand and be sure that you have provided your documentation when the loan officer requests it. A preapproval letter is even more likely to get your offer accepted. As busy as I am, I can generally only show homes to prequalified buyers. Since most Las Vegas Advisor readers are eminently qualified, I often do a quick telephone prequal myself. But that's not going to help you if you're in town for 2 days to buy a home and you can't get a prequal in time to lock up your dream home.

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