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Check Your Credit Before Buying a Clovis Home

Real Estate Agent with Carole Jacoby & Co. Real Estate CA DRE#00373261

April 24, 2014 05:42 AM

Check Your Credit Before Buying a Clovis Home

Congratulations. You have decided to become a Clovis homeowner. You've saved up a sizable down payment. You are interviewing Clovis real estate agents. Don't forget to check your credit before buying a Clovis home. What you find may mean the difference between settling into your dream home or living a lending nightmare.

Obvioulsy, the first thing you need to do when checking your credit before buying a Clovis home is to pull your credit reports from all three reporting agencies: Experian, TransUnion and Equifax. You are legally allowed to receive one free report from each agency every calendar year. Credit companies don't always report your accounts to all three agencies. That's why there may be a huge FICO score discrepancy between the three. For example, Experian may show you have a score of 685 while TransUnion shows a 750 and Equifax says it's 700. Mortgage companies will take the middle score (in this example, it would be 700) to determine your interest rate. While 750 is an excellent credit score, 700 may put you at a slightly higher interest rate, which translates into a higher monthly payment.

Once you receive your reports, go over them thoroughly to see if there are any errors. If you find them, you will need to write to each company that reported the error as well as the agency or agencies that showed the error on your report. This can take time. That's why it should be done as far ahead of the Clovis home search as possible. Make sure you document everything, including phone calls (who you talked to, with which company, time and dates). Follow up in writing with the companies you speak to personally to reiterate what was discussed during the phone calls. Make sure you send copies of each correspondence to the reporting agency involved. Keep these in a file in case you need to present them to your mortgage company later.

Check your credit before buying a Clovis home. Errors can take weeks to correct. However, the time and effort will well be worth it when it comes to your monthly payment. When you're ready to start looking at Clovis homes, just let me know. I'll be happy to show you what we've got!