Get the credit you need to buy your dream home or multiple investment properties. Qualifying for a real estate purchase requires different credit than automobile financing or retail Palm Beach architects.
If you plan to finance real estate,Credit Help for Buying Houses: 14 Common Credit Mistakes Articles either as a home buyer or as an investor, these credit tips will help you with your credit score and save you money on loan costs.
- Using expensive or undesirable types of credit costs too much and is negatively scored.
- Accumulating too many lines of credit or too many credit cards causes credit report remarks like “too much consumer credit.”
- Only paying the minimum due keeps balances too high.
- Being maxed out on any credit card or line of credit causes deep drops in scores.
- Taking cash advances costs higher interest and extra fees.
- Exceeding limit and having to pay over-limit fees is a negative with creditors and causes “high proportional amounts owed” remarks on credit reports and subtracts credit score points.
- Paying a day or more late causes unnecessary late fees and often increases interest rates.
- Charging more than you can afford causes a snowball effect of amassing debt with no easy way to pay it off.
- Letting someone else use your credit, such as co-signing a loan, raises your debt-to-income ratio and possibly adds “too many consumer accounts” on your credit report, which lowers your score.
- Ignoring credit problems causes unnecessary negative impact. Talk to creditors before being late and make arrangements. This action heads off negative reporting to credit bureaus.
- Failure to report address changes to creditors causes misplaced bills and late payments.
- Using partial name, different names, initials instead of whole name, or forgetting Sr. or Jr. causes mix-ups. Use your full legal name to protect you from confusion with similarly named borrowers.
- Failure to report name changes to creditors also causes confusion.
- Not checking credit report frequently is one of the most common mistakes consumers make.
You can buy real estate with poor credit, but you will save thousands in loan costs if you maintain good credit. A bad credit report leaves home buyers with nonprime loans which have higher point charges, prepayment penalties, and higher interest charges, which therefore cost more money.