Vetting lenders without hurting credit

[Blake Hrabal]

Hey BP. I'm in the process of vetting lenders who can help me get started on my REI journey getting my first property/mortgage.

Obviously, before I can buy I need to know what I'm pre-qualified to afford. But I want to follow BP's advice and vet my lenders, multiple lenders, to find the best rates/loan options for me. 

Everything I'm reading shows that getting a lender to pre-qualify you is a hard pull on your credit. A few articles say it's a soft pull on your credit, but if you soft pull multiple times, it can affect your credit negatively. 

How do you vet multiple lenders like the REI pieces of training teach, without dropping your credit score in the process? I've worked too hard to get my credit back to good standing over the last decade I don't want to ruin it because I'm shopping around for the best deal.

Another few articles I've read say you can only really vet up to 3 lenders, so that puts a cap on it I guess, but that's still 3 hits to your credit score even 3 soft pulls gotta bring your credit down a handful of points. 

Looking for some clarity here....again...how do you vet multiple lenders like REI teachings advise without hurting your credit score?