Credit Scores and your Mortgage

I hear all the time from clients wondering why the mortgage estimates on Zillow, Redfin, Trulia, etc, never match the mortgage estimates from their lenders.

There are many factors, but the main one is the interest rate. The online calculators want to encourage your home buying, so they will assume you have perfect credit and therefore the interest is automatically set to a rock bottom rate.

That rate is possible, but you usually have to have a 750+ credit score to qualify. The best thing you can do is know your credit score ahead of time and work on boosting it.

(At the very least, you can game out various options with the lender to mitigate a lower score.)

Here's a good graphic spelling it out:

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