I am a beginning invester with a FICO score of 561. I have recently purchased a property to fix and resell but was unable to get additional funding to complete repairs because of my score. When I ordered my scores online from the three credit bureaus my scores came back much higher than what my mortgage broker told me they were. When I asked about this, he told be the credit bureaus issue "consumer" scores which are higher than the scores that are reported to mortgage brokers. Is this true? If so, how can I accurately track my real credit score. Also, how can I keep track of my score without putting too many inquiries on my credit report and ultimately lowering my score? All help would be appreciated as I am looking to purchase more properties.

Tom,

I am a credit analyst at a small commercial bank and I own two properties (my home and an investment property) so I have some experience in not only the mortgage process, but in commercial credit analysis.

When I asked about this, he told be the credit bureaus issue "consumer" scores which are higher than the scores that are reported to mortgage brokers. Is this true?

My answer to this is no. I have had my broker fax me copies of credit reports he obtains for me and they are the same as the ones I obtained myself. You should ask the broker for a copy of your credit report and should match this up with what you obtained from the three credit bureaus and find out why they are different. If your score is significantly lower on one report, there is probable something "dragging it down" and whatever this is, you should work on resolving it.

Also, how can I keep track of my score without putting too many inquiries on my credit report and ultimately lowering my score?

Because of the new fair reporting act, you are allowed to obtain one free credit report per year. Visit the following link http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/conline/pubs/credit...freereports.htm for details.

Most people overestimate how much inquiries lower their score; multiple inquiries during a twelve month period will hurt your score somewhat, but a limited number of inquiries within a 12 month period will hurt your score very little if at all.

Regards,

TMH

I think that the score might be substantially different depending on where you ordered it from. I personally think that ordering a report directly from each of the credit bureaus {Equifax, Experian & Transunion} with their own versions of credit scores is better. It will also be much easier to clean up the credit afterwards as you can use their online tools to report discrepancies.

You might want to take a look at Creditboards.com That is a site that is frequented by people with bad credit history seeing what other people have gone through might give you an insight as to how to approach your credit.

I agree that inquiries do not hurt all that much, and your own inquiries do not hurt at all. Being past due or having a high percentage of credit utilization are the usual culprits.

Good luck