Tag Archive for: #credit score

Make money with your credit

Making money with your credit score.

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So, what’s the big deal about credit scores?

Well, think of it like a baseball game.

You can hit it out of the park and claim victory…or strike out and lose.

When you win the credit score game, you win countless opportunities.

These include affordable rates, more loan options, and, in the end, hundreds of thousands of dollars. In this video, we discuss 3 EASY ways to boost your credit score…and your cash flow!

How to Make Money with Your Credit Score Need a tool to generate positive cash flow? Download our FREE Loan Optimizer!

Learn more about how credit can fuel your investments on our YouTube Playlist.

WHO WE ARE ======================== Hard money loans are a necessity for most real estate investors. Mike Bonn and his team make them easy! For 21+ years, Hard Money Mike has provided topnotch lending services to real estate investors across the United States. We offer the best options in private lending for fix and flips, rentals, and other value-add properties. Plus, we can fund bridge loans in 10 days or less! If you’re looking for quality, FAST loans with the highest loan-to-values and best rates, then our team is ready to help. No experience required!

Making money with your credit score.

The impact of your credit score

How Your Credit Score Impacts Your Real Estate Investments

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If you want to maximize leverage in your investments, you need to know this key information about your credit score.

There’s nothing more disappointing than this…

You’ve searched everywhere, but can’t seem to find a decent loan.

Money keeps getting sucked away with high interest rates and down payments.

Even when you find good properties, you never seem to come out on top.

…But your real estate investment was supposed to help you start living your dreams.

What’s going wrong on the money side of your investments?

Your Credit Score Matters

Your credit score could be the number one thing holding you back.

A credit score impacts cash flow from real estate investments. It determines interest rates, out-of-pocket costs, and what kinds of loans you can get.

With a low credit score, you’ll have:

  • Higher interest rates
  • Higher down payments
  • Fewer loan options available

What Is a Credit Score?

A credit score is a number between 0 and 850 that tells financial institutions whether or not it’s wise to lend to you.

Your score is determined by several pieces of information about your finances.

But the two most important are payment history and accounts owed.

It comes down to:

  1. Do you pay your credit cards and loans back on time?
  2. And do you use less credit than is available to you?

What Should My Credit Score Be?

With a score of 800, you’re almost guaranteed to hear “yes” from any lender.

At 740 and higher, you’ll still have access to the best loans with the best rates.

Between 670-739 is still a good position, and you can get decent rates.

And a score below 670 will be detrimental to your real estate investing experience.

Lending credit scores

Lending credit scores

But if you’ve just realized you have a low credit score, don’t lose hope.

How Can My Credit Score Maximize My Leverage?

The higher your credit score, the higher your leverage. Lenders look for people with high credit scores. Having a better score will open up doors for you to find:

  • Better loans
  • More quickly than you would with a lower score
  • From a wider variety of financial institutions

Interest Rates

A good credit score will get you loans with better interest rates.

A significant amount of money can leak out of your deal from bad interest rates brought on by your credit score.

To put it in perspective: If you end up paying $500 per month on interest, that becomes $18,000 after three years. That’s $18,000 that could have been your profit that goes directly to the lender instead. With a better credit score, you can find a loan that keeps more of your money in your pocket.

Down Payment

Let’s say you found a great property for sale for $300,000. With good credit, you may only be asked to put 10% down – or potentially even 0%! With a lower credit score, though, you’ll likely be asked for a 20-25% down payment.

For the same $300,000 deal, good credit can mean the difference between paying $30,000 out-of-pocket or $70,000!

What To Do Next

Your credit score determines whether you take the easy road or the hard road with your real estate investing experience.

If you don’t already have a credit score of 800, focus on raising your credit score before anything else. Doing this will earn you:

  • Lower interest rates
  • Lower down payments
  • More loan options
  • A more successful investment!

It’s hard enough to find properties, find contractors, find tenants, find sellers… make it easier on yourself to find lenders.

We want to help you succeed in your investments.

For more help with understanding and improving your credit score as a real estate investor, check out these helpful videos on our YouTube Channel.

You can also download our Credit Score Checklist at this link.

Happy investing.

How Your Credit Score Impacts Your Real Estate Investments

How Your Credit Score Impacts Your Real Estate Investments

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How Your Credit Score Impacts Your Real Estate Investments

Did you know your credit score impacts your wallet…and the cash flow you get from your real estate investments?

Because the better your credit score, the better, easier, and more profitable your investments will be. Because your credit score determines your interest rates, the amount of money you need to put into each deal, and what kind of loans are available. If you have a low credit score, then you can expect to:

  • Pay high interest rates.
  • Put more of your money into each deal.
  • And have fewer loan options available.

So, yeah. Your credit score matters.

But…what is a credit score?

Well, basically, it’s a number between zero and 850, and this number helps lenders decide if they can trust you with their money.

You see, financial institutions don’t know you. Unfortunately, you’re just another face in the crowd. So, in order to get to know you better, they created a scoring system that helps them understand you and your financial habits.

Again, you want to aim for a high credit score. Generally speaking, anything below 700 is going to cost you time and money, and lead to a lot of disappointment and frustration.

How does your credit score get calculated?

Well, multiple factors get considered, but the two biggest ones are your payment history and amounts owed.

First, your payment history is exactly what is sounds like. Financial institutions can see how you pay your bills, how often you pay them, how late you pay them, and if you pay them at all.

As for amounts owed, this is how you utilize your credit lines.

For example, if Jane and Joe both owe $1,000 on their credit cards, they can still have very different credit scores. Because Jane’s card is maxed out at $1,000, while Joe’s credit card is maxed out at $5,000.

So, creditors see Jane as a risk, because she’s not managing her credit very well. She’s 100% tapped out.

Joe, on the other hand, isn’t a risk, because he still has another $4,000 at his disposal. So, unlike Jane, he’s only using 20% of his available credit. And creditors like that!

That’s why, at the end of the day, Joe’s credit score will be higher than Jane’s.

So, what kind of score should you really aim for? Well, for the best loans with the best rates, you’ll want a score that’s higher than 740. Anything above 800 is considered exceptional. If you have this kind of score, then you’ll likely always hear “yes” from lenders, rather than “no.”

Now, if your score lands between 670 and 739, then you’ll still be in a good position for a decent loan with decent rates.

Anything below 670 is…not so good. But that’s okay, because there are easy ways to quickly raise your credit score.

#1: Add more credit to your credit line

Remember Jane? Well, she can go to her credit card company and ask them to raise her limit from $1,000 to $3,000. That would drastically impact her credit score, because she’ll go from using 100% of her available credit to only 33%.

#2: Get authorized on someone else’s GOOD credit account

A good credit account means it’s paid on time, it’s existed for a while, and it has a low balance. So, think about asking a parent, a friend, or someone else you trust if they’ll add you as an authorized user to their credit card account.

#3: Go private

This means borrowing money from someone or someplace so you can pay off all of your credit cards for 60 or so days. During that time, you can apply for more credit.

Basically, your credit score determines your path. If you want to pay lower rates, use less of your own money, and have more loan options, then you need to focus on raising your score.

Just remember, a high credit score will make your fix and flips, rentals, and other real estate investments a whole lot easier and way more profitable.

Happy investing!

My Credit Score...What's That About?

Money Chat: My Credit Score…What’s That About?

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Money Chat: My Credit Score…What’s That About?

When you need a loan, do you ever think, “My credit score…What’s that about?”

Well, during our next Money Chat, Mike Bonn is going to answer all of your questions. He’s also going to share insider tips on how to raise your score so you can get the best loan possible.

My Credit Score...What's That About?

Want to join Mike’s Money Chat? Then register for FREE here.

Mike will answer common questions like:

  • Is this based on my credit?
  • Will you pull my credit?
  • How can I boost my credit score? 
  • What score do I need to get the best rates?

By the end of the Money Chat, you should have a much better grasp of how your credit score impacts your loan options…and, more importantly, your cash flow and profits.

When: Thursday, September 30th, 11 AM MST

Where: Virtual nationwide.

Register for free at https://my.demio.com/ref/lw8s3Krd8n4vKXqo

Can’t make it? No problem. We run free Money Chats every week to make sure you have an opportunity to listen, learn, and ask all of your questions.

Mike and the rest of the Hard Money Mike/Cash Flow Mortgage Company team looks forward to seeing you on Thursday.

If you have any questions about our weekly Money Chats, then our team is here to answer them any time.

Happy investing!

The Cost of Credit: How Much Is Your Score Costing You?

The Cost of Credit: How Much Is Your Score Costing You?

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The Cost of Credit: How Much Is Your Score Costing You?

Do you know the cost of credit and how much your score is costing you?

Well, it could be adding 10+ years of extra payments to your life.

Yep, you heard that right. Ten or more years worth of payments! That could be as much as $500,000 you don’t need to pay, and all because you don’t have an ideal credit score.

That’s why today we’re going to dive into the impact your credit score has on your real estate deals…and your wallet.

If you don’t fit into a standard loan’s very strict (and small) box, then it can cost you dearly.

So, why does this happen?

Because there are many kinds of loans, but the ones with the best rates and terms are Conventional (aka, “standard”). If you can’t qualify for these affordable loans, then your costs jump considerably when you move to Non-QM (aka, “non-standard) loans.

Right now, in this market, the difference between a standard and a non-standard loan is 2 to 3 points.

That’s thousands of dollars. 

In the video above, we compare two investors who have different loans with different rates. Even though they both paid the same amount for a property, the outcome of what they pay might surprise you…especially when they start buying multiple properties.

Investor 1 pays a lower rate than Investor 2.

So, let’s breakdown their payments based on a loan amount of $200,000…

Every month, Investor 1 pays $954.83 for their property. Meanwhile, Investor 2 pays $1,264.14. That’s about $310 more than Investor 1 per month.

Now, let’s take that another step further:

Both investors eventually purchase 5 properties to add to their real estate portfolio. The difference in their total payments is about $1,500 per month (yikes).

If we take that number and look at what happens every year, Investor 2 will pay about $18,500 more than Investor 1. All because their credit score was too low to get a loan with affordable rates.

And here’s where you can see the biggest impact: Over the life of the loan (about 30 years), Investor 2 will pay over half a million dollars more than Investor 1.

Now you can see why your credit score matters.

How can you make sure you pay cheaper rates and qualify for standard loans? Well, check out some of our helpful tips on Youtube. Plus, our team is always here to help.

Happy investing!

Credit Score Basics: How Lenders Use FICO Scores

How Lenders Use Your FICO Score

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How Lenders Use Your FICO Score

Do you know how lenders use your FICO score? Because it’s vital to whether or not you get approved for a loan.

If you understand credit score basics, then you’ll have a much better chance of hearing a “yes” rather than a “no” from a lender. You’ll also gain a much deeper understanding of how your score impacts your monthly payments.

You see, when you have a decent credit score (700+), then you can expect to see more loan approvals. Especially from traditional lenders, like banks.

Plus, a good credit score will lead to good rates. And that means cheaper bills.

For real estate investors, a good credit score can make all the difference between positive and negative cash flow. And over time, that kind of business model can run you…well, out of business.

If you’d like a quick overview of how credit scores work and how lenders use them, then check out this explanatory video from FICO.

In this video, you’ll get a simple and fast explanation of how credit scores work. Again, this is vital if you want to succeed with your real estate deals. And your overall financial health. Your wallet will thank you for taking such good care of your credit score.

If you want more credit score tips, check out our Youtube channel! As we’ve stated throughout this article, we highly encourage you to understand the importance of your score so when it’s time to get a loan for your next value-add property (fix and flip or rental), you’ll have lots of options. And access to great rates.

Need some extra input on your credit score and how you can raise it? Our team is always here to offer advice and guidance.

As always, happy investing!

How To Make $250,000 with a Good Credit Score

How To Make $250,000 with a Good Credit Score

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How To Make $250,000 with a Good Credit Score

Did you know you can make $250,000 with a good credit score?

Yep, that’s right.

But, how?

Well, let’s pretend your credit score is fishing bait. If you have good bait, then you can catch something big and juicy. But if you have bad bait, then you’ll walk away from the pond with nothing but a sunburn and bug bites.

Yuck!

So, what creates a good credit score? Well, it depends on what you have in your tackle box.

A well-equipped tackle box includes:

  • Monthly bills that get paid on time
  • Credit cards with 30% (or lower) credit usage
  • And a diverse credit mix. That means you have multiple types of payments, like a house, a car, insurance, credit cards, etc.

When you have good bait in your tackle box (aka, a good credit score), then you can live the life you want. That means owning a house, a reliable car, a fat retirement account, and many–MANY–other things. The world is your oyster when you have good credit.

Because the higher your score, the lower your rates. And the lower your rates, the bigger your bank account.

In fact, if you have a 760 or higher score, then you can reel in an extra $250,000 by the time you retire.

But if you have a score under 650, then you’re going to have a tough time catching anything in life’s pond. Because lenders don’t like subpar credit scores. When they see your low score, they’ll reject your application or charge you expensive rates.

But don’t worry!

If you want to fish with the good stuff, then you just need to focus on raising your credit score. And it’s not all that hard to do so. It just takes a few quick, easy steps to boost your number. For example:

  • Pay your bills on time
  • Keep your credit usage under 30%
  • Get a loan to help you pay off your credit cards

Check out some of our other videos for credit score boosting tips.

Everyone deserves to own a shiny, well-equipped tackle box (er, credit score). If need advice or want to chat about yours, our team is here to help.

Happy investing!

What Is Bad Debt Versus Good Debt?

What Is Bad Debt Versus Good Debt?

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What Is Bad Versus Good Debt?

So, what is bad and good debt?

Well, before we jump into that, did you know there are two types? Because most of us were raised to believe ALL debt was bad.

But no. That’s not true. At all!

In fact, good debt is necessary to build your credit score. Without it, you can’t boost your FICO score and obtain low-rate loans for things like fix and flips, rentals, and other value-add properties.

So, now that you know there is such a thing a good debt, let’s look at the difference between the good kind and the bad kind…

As you can see in the image above, bad debt is essentially any kind of consumer good. It’s something that doesn’t create cash flow. So, think about your vacations, cars, TVs, clothing, etc. They’re fun to have but not helpful to your bank account.

Good debt, on the other hand, pays for itself AND generates a profit. The best example is a real estate property. If done right, you’ll gain equity on most of the properties you purchase. It can be instant equity (aka, a fix and flip) or long-term equity (your personal home that has a 15-30 year mortgage). But, as long as you pay your monthly mortgage, owning a home tends to be a great investment.

So, the next time you hear the word “debt,” don’t cringe. Instead, ask yourself, “Is this the kind I want?”

If it’s bad (because nobody can get through life without having some bad), stop and ask yourself this: “Is this something I need?” Or, more importantly, “How quickly can I remove this from my credit history?” In other words, how can you pay for it without using a credit card? Because as long as you pay your bills and maintain a healthy credit usage (under 30%), even bad debt can be okay.

It’s all about balance and healthy finances!

Have questions? No problem. Our team is always here to chat.

Happy investing!

How Your Credit Score Can Make You Thousands of Dollars

How to Make Money with Your Credit Score

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How to Make Money with Your Credit Score

Today, let’s chat about how to make money with your credit score.

Your credit score is kind of like a baseball game. With it, you can knock it out of the park and enjoy great success with your finances. Or you can strike out, and–well–lose (ouch).

 

When you “win” the credit score game, you win countless opportunities. These include:

  • The best interest rates
  • Affordable loans
  • And, in the end, hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Yes, you read that last one right. Hundreds of thousands of dollars. Because a good credit score means cheaper rates. Which means cheaper bills. Which means you save A LOT of money over the years.

Before we go on, let’s talk about what a “winning credit score” look like.

Winning Credit Score

Most lenders like to see scores in the 700’s or higher. Anything lower will likely lead to rejections and expensive rates.

But what if you have a score under 700? Nobody wants to walk up to the plate and strike out, right?

Well, let’s take a look at 3 strategies to help you prepare for this financial ballgame.

Increase Your Available Credit

Pick up the phone and call your credit card company so you can apply for a higher limit. Why? Because then it’ll be easier to keep your credit usage at or below 30%.

What do we mean by that? Well, let’s take a look.

If your credit card balance is $8,000 and you have a maximum credit line of $10,000, then creditors can see you’re using 80% of your available funds. Yikes! In their critical eyes, this means you’re a risk–a BIG one–and you might not be able to meet your financial obligations (i.e. you won’t be able to pay them back).

Not good.

Now, if your credit card balance is $3,000 and you have a maximum credit line of $10,000, then creditors see you’re only using 30% of your available funds. That’s much, much better. In fact, it could be a home run in the eyes of lenders.

Because when you manage your credit usage, creditors will think you’re financially responsible. AKA, you pay your bills. And that will lead to more loan approvals and lower rates.

Yay!

Pay Extra

A large chunk of your credit score revolves around your monthly reported balances to the credit bureaus.

So, it always helps to pay extra on your credit cards before your next statement. If you do this, the credit bureaus will be happy with you. Very happy! That means your score will rise.

Now, if those first two strategies don’t work for you, then you can always take a more creative third approach (one we’ve recommended to many clients).

Get a 60 to 90 Day Note

Basically, you can get a loan to pay down or pay off your credit cards. You can get one from a bank, a family member, a friend, or a private lender. This way you can keep your real estate projects moving along and your cash flow, well, flowing.

Make Money with Your Credit Score

If you take one, two, or all three of these steps to boosting your credit score, then you’ll have a much better chance of getting lower rates and generating thousands of dollars over time.

And if you play the game right, you can knock it out of the park and make hundreds of thousands of dollars!

Happy investing!

Is Your Credit Card Balance Killing Your Credit Score?

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