Non-contingent, in a six-offer house
A couple came to me with a credit score that was not where it needed to be and a home they still had to sell. We did not make an offer yet. We worked a plan to move that score, re-pulled credit when it had, and set up a buy-before-you-sell program with a lot of moving parts.
Then the house showed up. Five or six offers. Theirs was the one with no sale contingency. Theirs was the one that won.
The work you do before the offer is what wins the offer.
The pre-approval that would not have closed
She had a pre-approval from another lender and an accepted offer. One question had never been asked: what are you doing with the house you live in now? She was keeping it as a rental, and the program on her pre-approval would not allow that in her situation.
I moved her to a program that fit and worked with the underwriter on the simplest accepted way to account for the home she was keeping. She closed.
A pre-approval is only as good as the questions behind it.