Pre-Qualify vs Deal Search Time

[Lucas Allmon]

Hi all, this is my first post here. 

I've been wanting to get into REI since about 2007, but it took a while to get my finances in together. Now I have a good chunk of liquid assets/income/credit score and am putting together the docs to get pre-qualified. I will most likely be house hacking a tri/quad with an FHA loan.

However, I'm not sure how long it will take to find a deal (I am looking and analyzing) What is the balance on moving quickly and getting approved for financing? How long does pre-qualification last for?

Or do I just look for deals and then get financing down. The real estate agent we are working with, is saying to get the pre-qualification letter first.