when starting out should I get Pre-approved for rental loan or find real estate agent

[Timothy Christian Jr]

if you think I should get pre-approved for a loan first, would it be more effective if I were to get the loan based on my credit score (which is not very high considering I'm still in college) or should I try to receive the loan based on the asset that I will be presenting to the bank or the hard money lender. The sole reason I initially deemed it logical to engage a real estate agent was to secure approval for the loan based on the property I intend to acquire.

feel free to leave me any advice you see fit for my problem.

Thanks,