When was the last time you took a close look at your credit report?  With the mortgage industry struggling with record foreclosures the lending belt has definitely tightened.   Mortgage requirements are changing by the day and financing programs are disappearing just as fast.  As real estate investors we rely on these mortgage programs to acquire properties and grow our business.

When the credit requirements exceeded what my credit score was I took action by enrolling myself and my wife in a credit repair program to aide increasing our credit score.  I was shocked at the initial review of my credit report.  There were many errors that included my rental address as my personal address, closed accounts still reporting, non solicited inquires and many other inaccuracies.  We immediately contested many of these errors which were removed raising our credit scores.  Another area of credit reporting we looked at was the balances vs. available credit.  It is important to monitor and take action when needed; this can adversely affect credit scores as well. 

To accomplish this I sought the advice of a professional and I would recommend doing the same.  If you are not advised on how the credit score system works, you can further lower your credit score.  For example if you have a credit account with a high credit limit with little or no balance and you close it because you do not use it any longer this could hurt your score because you may have just raised your outstanding balance vs. credit limit as a whole on your credit report.

Take a careful look at your credit report and clear up those errors before they hurt you without even knowing it.  Credit scores are now more important than ever!

Chris Yatooma, President

Real Estate Investors Association of Oakland