Pre Qual Letter

[Dan Shelhamer]

I am in the process of looking for my 1st buy & hold property.  I got my pre-qualification letter from Chase about a month ago.  I found a property that I would like to make an offer on, however, my agent has told me that I need to get prequalified from 'Caliber Home Loans' in order to make an offer on this specific house.  He said it is basically their way of trying to "get my business".  Is this a real thing?  I feel like Caliber is probabaly paying any agents a referral bonus for having their clients do this.  I really do not want to start getting pre-approved through all these different lenders.  It is a waste of time, and I feel like it will hurt my credit.  Please let me know what all of you have experienced with situations like this.  Ist this real or am I being taken advantage of?