Sunday, April 20, 2014

How to Find an Indianapolis Mortgage/Home Loan: Will Credit Checks Hurt My Credit Score?

by Jess Martin

Will credit checks hurt my credit rating?

When a person is ready to buy a house in Indianapolis, they typically look to their real estate agent - me - for advice on how to handle the process of finding the best rate for their home loan and ensuring approval.

How to find the best interest rates on a mortgage/home loan in Indiana can involve researching multiple lenders and I always suggest that my clients do so. However, my clients are naturally concerned that having several different companies pull their credit reports will affect their FICO scores - the credit report/history kept by the major credit reporting bureaus.


While it's always important to be cautious with something important as your credit rating, there are several things to understand about how credit bureaus look at such things when calculating your credit score for an Indianapolis mortgage loan.

Yes, multiple applications and inquiries can have an adverse affect on your FICO score.

However, and this is very important, the bureaus view inquiries quite differently when they can see that an individual or couple is "credit shopping." This involves looking for the best interest rates when attempting to secure a loan for a major purchase like a house or car.

Essentially, if you have several inquiries from different Indiana mortgage companies within a short period of time (typically about 30 days) the credit bureaus understand that you are "credit shopping" and these requests to pull credit do NOT hurt your credit score.



But do NOT draw out that shopping over a long period of time (a few months) otherwise your credit score indeed may be nicked.


When you're interested in buying a house in Indianapolis, including Central Indy, Midtown, Downtown Indianapolis, and Broad Ripple, contact me for a chat and no-obligation advice on your best options.






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