Are you ready to buy your new home?
One of the more interesting aspects about being a real estate agent is getting to meet and speak with prospective homebuyers, and more often than not, the first thing they mention is that their credit is bad and they don’t know where to start. The first instinct is to go to a credit repair person or company and that is not always the best option, in my opinion. Ideally, you want to speak with someone who is a knowledgeable and seasoned real estate expert, and here is where it gets tricky. People naturally assume that all real estate agents and loan officers are knowledgeable about getting credit to the point where a mortgage loan can reasonably be approved. The reality is that they are not. Precious few real estate agents take the time to accompany their prospective buyers to their mortgage loan appointments and thus are not continually learning the ins and outs or pitfalls of mortgage financing. The blanket response given by real estate agents to people with bad credit is to go find a credit repair ‘expert’ and see what happens. So…off goes the customer into the hit-or-miss business of having their credit fixed.
But what if the credit isn’t as bad as you may think? I get people who come into the model home and tell me that their credit is great only to find out that it is not as great as they thought, and vice versa. Many people assume that their credit is poor when it is good enough to move forward with some simple tweaks (sometimes none at all).
What if you can fix it on your own and use the money you would have paid to the ‘credit fixers’ to pay some of your derogatory credit accounts? That is the best way to do it. Once a derogatory account has been settled or paid, the credit account is then updated and reported accordingly to your credit report. Mortgage lenders find this acceptable.
Credit repair people will tell you that it is not a good idea to do this because it lowers credit scores, but that is a scare tactic used to justify the need to purchase their services. Isn’t it always a good idea to pay back any debt you might owe? Imagine being the person/company who is owed the money. Would you be happy to receive payment even if it is later than you’d hoped?
On the bright side, fixing your credit does not take years. It could take as little as 4 to 6 months depending on the severity of the problem. This is where I come in. I can look at a potential homebuyer’s credit report and develop a plan of action to improve the credit score. I can get them to a position where buying a home is possible. I do it at no cost to any potential homebuyers looking to purchase their new Tropicana Home.