Ready to buy: What is the right time to get mortgage preapproval, run credit check?
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credit check, home purchase, mortgage preapproval, tips March 21st, 2008WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) — Question: My wife and I are looking for a home to buy. We understand the great rates and cheap houses are making for a great opportunity. We have worked on our credit for the last 10 years and believe we now have excellent credit. We also are putting an extra $1,000 on top of our rent to make sure we can make a mortgage payment of about $2,000, and are saving at the same time for a down payment. We don’t make much money but we do feel we are ready to be homeowners.
Should we run our credit now to get preapproved? I understand that preapproved letters are only good for 45 days. After that, we have to run credit checks again. Or should we just wait until we find that right home and then run our credit?
Answer: If your credit record is as good as you say it is — a decade is way more than enough time to clean up any previous problems — then I don’t see the need to run a credit check just to see if you qualify for a mortgage or what your credit score is. Credit scores are moving targets in that they change from day to day.
Tags: credit check, home purchase, mortgage preapproval, tips
