Credit Repair Before Buying Your Home. Part 1.

Credit Repair before Buying your Home. Part 1.

Fred Miller, Realtor, Re/Max Plantation, FredMiller9@gmail.com , www.RichmondKatyHomes.com Office receptionist: 281/342-2288 Cell: 281/924-2531

You will see lots of advertisements offering to fix your credit for you. This is not one of them. The truth is that it is expensive to repair credit, if not in money--then time and effort. No one can remove accurate bad credit from your credit report. There is no quick fix for creditworthiness. If you are borderline you may be able to improve your credit worthiness enough to get a home loan.

As a side note, but a very important one. Dave Krichmar, made a very crucial statement "Recently, Underwriting guidelines have changed. You can no longer have a disputed account on your credit report and get approved for a home mortgage. It must be removed, in order to get approved. When you have a disputed account it is taken out of the scoring model, causing the underwriter to not get a fair and complete picture of your credit situation. You must get this disputed account removed before the file goes into the home lenders's underwriting. Keep in mind the process of removing a disputed account can take 30-60 days."

With this said we will go on. Do not start this process at the last minute! Be relaxed when you start looking for a home.

Many people's credit is damaged by inaccurate reporting. The law allows you to ask for an investigation of information in your file that you dispute as inaccurate or incomplete. There is no charge for this. Some people hire a company to investigate on their behalf, but anything a credit repair clinic can do legally, you can do for yourself at little or no cost. According to the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA):

Each of the nationwide consumer reporting companies — Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion — is required to provide you with a free copy of your credit report once every 12 months, if you ask for it. The three companies have a central website, a toll-free telephone number, and a mailing address for consumers to order the free annual credit reports the government entitles them to. To order, click on annualcreditreport.com.

It doesn’t cost anything to dispute mistakes or outdated items on your credit report. Under the FCRA, both the consumer reporting company and the information provider (that is, the person, company, or organization that provides information about you to a consumer reporting company) are responsible for correcting inaccurate or incomplete information in your report.

To take advantage of all your rights under the FCRA, contact the consumer reporting company and the information provider. Tell the consumer reporting company (the company dinging your credit), in writing, what information you think is inaccurate. Include copies (NOT originals) of any documents that support your position. In addition to providing your complete name and address, your letter should identify each item in your report you dispute; state the facts and the reasons you dispute the information, and ask that it be removed or corrected. You may want to enclose a copy of your report, and circle the items in question.

Send your letter by certified mail, “return receipt requested,” so you can document that the consumer reporting company received it. Keep copies of your dispute letter and enclosures.

Consumer reporting companies must investigate the items you question within 30 days — unless they consider your dispute frivolous. When the investigation is complete, the consumer reporting company (the people who are wasting your time and effort) must give you the results in writing, too, and a free copy of your report if the dispute results in a change. A good website is the Federal Trade Commission. Good luck in purchasing your new home.  See Part 2 coming soon regarding how FICO looks at your credit. 

Fred Miller, Re/Max Plantation, FredMiller9@gmail.com , www.RichmondKatyHomes.com Office receptionist: 281/342-2288 Cell: 281/924-2531