Improve Your Credit Score

The main consideration in a home-buying decision financial. In order for a lender to see you as a good prospect, the first thing they look at is your credit score.  No one’s is perfect, and even if your score isn’t ideal, you can (and should!) take the time to improve it before you start looking at prospective homes. 

 

• - To see what your credit score is, request a free credit report from all three reporting agencies.  Check each report for errors, and report them to both the credit bureau and company that reported it. 
• - If there is a legitimate collection on your credit report, pay it as soon as you can, but it will not be removed from your credit history for seven years, although it will be marked as paid. 
• - Old debt on your report that was paid in full and on time is better for your score than having it removed.  So if you’ve paid off an account in good standing, leave it as long as possible. 

• - If you have a history of keeping your payments on time, that’s great, because late payments hurt your score.  Stay current by setting reminders to mail payments before their due date, or set up automatic payments through your bank. 
• - Pay off your credit cards!  This is so important, because the more outstanding debt you have, the lower your score.  Pay off the smallest balance first, and the larger balances can be paid off sooner by increasing your payments, or send equal payments twice per month if the creditor allows. 
• - Canceling a credit card that you’re trying to pay down sounds like a great idea, but it isn’t, according to FICO™.  It’s better to simply pay off the card, and use it as minimally as possible--charging to it once a month for a take-out dinner keeps it active. 
• - Don’t have a credit card?  Shop around for one with a good interest rate, and apply.  Having at least one credit account in good standing is better than none at all for those who haven’t really started establishing a credit history. 
• - Applying for loans or credit with multiple agencies can hurt your score.  Avoid new credit accounts while you’re trying to bring your score up. 

• - If you are truly hurting financially, and don’t see a light at the end of the tunnel, contact a reputable credit repair agency that can assist you in getting your bills paid, manage your finances, and increase your home purchase chances. 

 

There is no hurrying when it comes to improving your credit rating, so plan on taking several months to a year to bring your score up to a number that will impress lenders.  It’s not all about the loan, it’s also about getting a good interest rate.  Much like taking up jogging to get into shape, take it slow, increase your efforts every month, and you’ll soon be showing off the results! 

 
Access Teri’s one-stop Orlando FL home search website.

Teri Isner is the team leader of Orlando Avenue Top Team and has been a Realtor for over 24 years. Teri has distinguished herself as a leader in the Orlando FL real estate market. Teri assists buyers looking for Orlando FL real estate for sale and aggressively markets Orlando FL homes for sale.

You deserve professional real estate service! You obtain the best results with Teri Isner plus you benefit from her marketing skills, experience and ability to network with other REALTORS®. Your job gets done pleasantly and efficiently.  You are able to make important decisions easily with fast, accurate information from Teri. The Orlando Avenue Top Team handles the details and follow-up that are important to the success of your transaction.

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Photo credit: illinoiscreditservices.com

Home Buying Myths Slayed

Some Highlights:

• Interest rates are still below historic numbers.
• 88% of property managers raised their rent in the last 12 months!
• The credit score requirements for mortgage approval continue to fall.

By: KCM Crew

Access Teri’s one-stop Orlando FL home search website.

Teri Isner is the team leader of Orlando Avenue Top Team and has been a Realtor for over 24 years. Teri has distinguished herself as a leader in the Orlando FL real estate market. Teri assists buyers looking for Orlando FL real estate for sale and aggressively markets Orlando FL homes for sale.

You deserve professional real estate service! You obtain the best results with Teri Isner plus you benefit from her marketing skills, experience and ability to network with other REALTORS®. Your job gets done pleasantly and efficiently.  You are able to make important decisions easily with fast, accurate information from Teri. The Orlando Avenue Top Team handles the details and follow-up that are important to the success of your transaction.

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Tips For Raising Your Credit Score

We have all been there before, getting ready to buy a house and then suddenly something of a negative nature pops up on our credit score that poses to keep us out of our dream home forever. There are ways to make sure you DO NOT end up in this sort of predicament however. Hopefully, the following tips for raising your credit score will be beneficial to you so that you can find your new home!

• Pay credit card bills before the statement date. Many times folks wait until the due date to pay a bill but if you are willing and able to pay them before the statement date, your credit score is likely to improve.
• If you can afford to make multiple payments on your credit balance throughout the month, this will also show favorably on your credit score. Check with your credit card company to make sure you are allowed to do this before beginning because some do not allow it.
• If you only have a couple bad marks on your credit, you can ask for a "good will deletion" . Of course if you are late over and over again you will not be able to reap this reward but if you can show that you otherwise have paid your bills on time you may be able to get those couple nasty marks off your credit and therefore raise your score!
• If one of your accounts has recently gone into collections you may be able to pay it off and have it removed from your credit report as a result. Be sure to get any type of promise to delete in writing so that you can be sure it will be taken off once you pay.

Credit issues can be hard to deal with especially if you are looking to purchase a new home in the near future, but take it from someone who knows….it CAN be done and you CAN have the house of your dreams maybe sooner than you had imagined! Keep working at it and you will succeed and come out the other side ready to move forward into your future!

Courtesy of Orlando FL Realtor Teri Isner!

Access Teri’s one-stop Orlando FL home search website.

Teri Isner is the team leader of Orlando Avenue Top Team and has been a Realtor for over 24 years. Teri has distinguished herself as a leader in the Orlando FL real estate market. Teri assists buyers looking for Orlando FL real estate for sale and aggressively markets Orlando FL homes for sale.

You deserve professional real estate service! You obtain the best results with Teri Isner plus you benefit from her marketing skills, experience and ability to network with other REALTORS®. Your job gets done pleasantly and efficiently. You are able to make important decisions easily with fast, accurate information from Teri. The Orlando Avenue Top Team handles the details and follow-up that are important to the success of your transaction.

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To Pay Or Not To Pay

As a follow-up to a recent blog post,Your Credit and Your Home Purchase, I want to share a tip from a credit restoration company I know…

“As Shakespeare almost put it, To Pay Or Not To Pay, that is the question:

When it comes to your credit scores, paying the right account or the wrong account can make a massive difference in your credit scores. Let’s focus on what not to pay. One would assume when paying off bad debts on your credit report, the credit scores would always increase. However “one” is not always correct. Paying off items like your utility collection, or your cell phone collection will most likely decrease your scores. This is despite the popular belief that having a $0 balance on your collection accounts must be better than owing money. Balances on collections are irrelevant, for example you could have a one million dollar medical collection or a one dollar medical collection and if everything else is the same the scores would also be the same. The reason why your scores generally decrease when a payment is made is because by making a payment you reactivate the account causing it to report as new again. This is shown as the ‘DLA’ on a credit report. This ‘DLA’ or ‘Date of Last Activity’ represents the weight of the account AND the seven year statute until the item will fall off naturally (which is a whole other problem, but we will save that for another day).

The reasoning behind this madness is that the algorithms that calculate scores cannot discriminate against wealthier/poorer individuals. So the fact that a wealthier person has the ability to pay off a certain dollar amount more easily than a poorer person would be discriminatory on algorithm calculation.”

Confused? Contact us and we’ll put you in touch with a reliable lender who can answer your questions.

Access Teri’s one-stop Orlando FL home search website.

Teri Isner is the team leader of Orlando Avenue Top Team and has been a Realtor for over 24 years. Teri has distinguished herself as a leader in the Orlando FL real estate market. Teri assists buyers looking for Orlando FL real estate for sale and aggressively markets Orlando FL homes for sale.

You deserve professional real estate service! You obtain the best results with Teri Isner plus you benefit from her marketing skills, experience and ability to network with other REALTORS®. Your job gets done pleasantly and efficiently. You are able to make important decisions easily with fast, accurate information from Teri. The Orlando Avenue Top Team handles the details and follow-up that are important to the success of your transaction.

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Your Credit and Your Home Purchase

When buying a home it is prudent to know about your credit score. According to a recent survey by Experian, many of those in the market for a home are already aware of the importance of their credit score. However, only half of recent buyers said they checked their credit when they first considered purchasing a home.

67% of buyers are NOT pre-approved.

45% of buyers delay their purchase (ultimately) to improve their credit.

That is almost HALF of buyers who delay the purchase based on information they should have known prior to shopping for a home.

This survey underscores how important the pre-approval loan process is. Even if just to give buyers an idea of what their credit report contains, what their rate and payment would be and how much they can qualify to buy. Too often, there are situations where people cannot qualify once under contract and it would have been quickly uncovered during a pre-approval.  This represents wasted time for the realtor, buyer, seller and all involved.

Lesson learned? Pay attention to your credit year-round, and understand that what you do today impacts how your credit works for you in critical purchase moments like home buying.

Information provided by Orlando Realtor Teri Isner.

Access Teri’s one-stop Orlando FL home search website.

Teri Isner is the team leader of Orlando Avenue Top Team and has been a Realtor for over 24 years. Teri has distinguished herself as a leader in the Orlando FL real estate market. Teri assists buyers looking for Orlando FL real estate for sale and aggressively markets Orlando FL homes for sale.

You deserve professional real estate service! You obtain the best results with Teri Isner plus you benefit from her marketing skills, experience and ability to network with other REALTORS®. Your job gets done pleasantly and efficiently. You are able to make important decisions easily with fast, accurate information from Teri. The Orlando Avenue Top Team handles the details and follow-up that are important to the success of your transaction.

Get Orlando Daily News delivered to your inbox! Subscribe here!

Is Your Credit Score a Big Deal?

Is your credit score a big deal? If you want to buy a home, it’s a huge deal!

Your credit score will determine if you can get a loan. It will also determine how much you can borrow and what your interest rate will be! To buy a home with a mortgage loan you must have a strong credit score.

There are three primary sources for credit scores in the US: Equifax, Experian and TransUnion. They all use the FICO system. These are the most used sources by creditors.

FICO developed the computer software the major credit scoring companies use. FICO scores range from 300 to 850. However, many creditors consider 500 to be the bottom of the acceptable range.

Your score is a measure of your credit-worthiness and determines the interest rate that you will pay for a loan. It’s not unusual for a creditor to obtain all three of the major scores and average them. A very good score is 700, and an excellent score in 750.

The primary factors that determine your score are:

·        payment history (35%)

·        debt/amounts owed (30%)

·        age of credit history (15%)

·        new credit/inquiries (10%)

·        mix of accounts/types of credit (10%)

65% of the total score is determined by only two factors: payment history and amount of debt owed. You must have a good history of paying your bills on time. And you must be very careful about how much debt you have relative to your income!

That last point is extremely important when borrowing for a home mortgage. As of 2014 the federal regulations governing mortgage lending have changed. Borrowers can no longer carry total debt of more than 43% of gross annual income, including the mortgage debt! Lenders are going to be very strict about adhering to that ratio. There are serious consequences for the lender not doing so.

Many actions you take affect your score. Most people don’t think about:

·        unpaid medical bills and parking tickets can lower your credit score

·        heavy credit use can lower your score, even if you pay large balances off in full in a short time

·        credit scores drop if you sign up and use store cards for initial discounts

For more advice about managing your credit, click here.

Looking forward to buying a home? Educate yourself, manage your credit score, and know your credit score before your lender does.

Information provided by Teri Isner Orlando Avenue Top Team.

Access Teri’s one-stop Orlando FL home search website.

Teri Isner is the team leader of Orlando Avenue Top Team and has been a Realtor for over 24 years. Teri has distinguished herself as a leader in the Orlando FL real estate market. Teri assists buyers looking for Orlando FL real estate for sale and aggressively markets Orlando FL homes for sale.

You deserve professional real estate service! You obtain the best results with Teri Isner plus you benefit from her marketing skills, experience and ability to network with other REALTORS®. Your job gets done pleasantly and efficiently. You are able to make important decisions easily with fast, accurate information from Teri. The Orlando Avenue Top Team handles the details and follow-up that are important to the success of your transaction.

Get Orlando Daily News delivered to your inbox! Subscribe here!