<human>: My partner and I are looking for a home. Our only stop so far has been a local credit union to look at what our monthly payment would be. We want to get pre-qualified (we think) but things have gotten a bit confusing.

We were told by an agent that we could get a "letter" of some sort that would allow us to shop around for rates. We've also been told that a mortgage broker will shop around for the best rates for us. However, the couple "mortgage brokers" we've been referred to have actually turned out to be loan officers/direct mortgage bankers and have said they won't be shopping our information to different lenders.

Are you able to request that a mortgage broker look into specific lenders (such as credit unions or insurance companies we're a part of)? We've been told getting pre-qualified won't affect our credit…but a couple outlets I've looked into have requested authorization to run a full credit check to do so?

Can you give me a shortened version of the text?
<bot>: Can someone explain the difference between getting pre-qualified, pre-approved, and whether we should look for a mortgage broker?