If you are thinking about starting your journey towards owning your dream home soon, maintaining good credit is essential. One of the first steps towards home-ownership is getting approved for a home loan. There is no quick fix to good credit so establishing good credit before you want to get pre-approved is important. To help you out, we have put a list together of 5 things to help you maintain good credit.
- Use your credit. You can’t create credit if you aren’t using it! Use your credit on a monthly basis, while also making sure to pay it off.
- Don’t have too many hard inquiries. There are two types of inquiries when it comes to credit: hard and soft. Hard inquiries are things like credit card applications, and these do impact your credit. When applying for a home loan, try to keep hard inquiries at a minimum.
- Keep your credit usage under 30%. Many people get scared to use their credit, but as long as you are paying it off and keep your debt-income ratio under 30% you will be in good standing.
- Don’t miss payments! If you do, talk to your creditor. Sometimes life happens and things can come in they way of making a payment on time. If this happens, don’t sweat, just call your creditor. In this case, communication really is key and sometimes they can offer other solutions.
- Establish long-term good-standing credit. Having a long-term history of good-standing credit will be one of the most important factors in maintaining good credit.
Whether it’s a credit card that you pay off monthly, or a car loan, establishing credit early on will help you later in life.
Cheers to good credit!
Are you ready for clear direction? Get in touch today!
Tim Erickson
P: (652) 451-2273
E: tim.erickson@goluminate.com
W: www.TimEricksonMortgage.com
Mark Henderson
P: (651) 398-3477
E: mark.henderson@goluminate.com
W: www.MarkHendersonMortgage.com