Is your credit score / credit report in cheque? … no pun intended
Is your credit score / credit report in cheque? … no pun intended
Here I am highlighting a recent real life example of how confirming your ability to get mortgage financing is always a good thing to do well in advance of beginning your search for a home. My example has to do with one’s credit report, however, similar situations can also arise when relating to one’s income, employment, self-employment, down payment, etc. so again, talk to a professional early so if adjustments, corrections, or additional information is required it can be addressed without impacting your ability to proceed with the purchase of a home in the time frame desired.
This week I was working with a client as they were about to start looking for home. In the process I discovered there was an “issue” with their credit report, they did not have one. Well in fact they did have a credit history, however, it was not being located in the agency’s system and as such their report was coming back as having “no history”. As you can imagine this posed a significant problem in trying to get approved for a mortgage as one of the primary factors in the ability to get an approval is not only to have a credit history but to also have a “good” one.
Credit history has always been an important factor in financing but in the last 6-9 months it has become an even more important factor. Credit reports provide detailed information on one’s credit history and summarize this history in the form of a score (beacon score) ranging from 300-900. Depending on the situation, product, use of property, etc. different minimum scores are required to be eligible for an approval. These minimum scores have also been increased recently with what has and is going on in the market so banks are saying they want a higher minimum score in order to be approved in the same situation as in the not too distant past (increasing the importance for one to take care of their credit).
So, back to my story, through getting some additional information from my client and then communicating this back to the reporting agency and supplying them with documentation, I was able to locate and consolidate their history in the agency’s system to ultimately get them a score and a proper report. We were very fortunate in that we were able to correct this situation in the same week, however, all issues cannot be handled as quickly, especially if there has been a case of identity theft on record for a client as this always causes banks to want additional confirmation that appropriate person is in fact the correct one applying for the new credit. With the size of mortgages you can appreciate how important of a factor this is as well.
For more information and assistance with your credit or planning for the purchase of a home in the next 6 months, please feel free to contact me at anytime.
(604) 603-2520 / Maury@MauryLum.com / www.MauryLum.com /
Best regards, Maury
