Perhaps the most important part to getting pre-approved is to pull a ?tri-merge? credit report well in advance of when you intend to buy. What does ?tri-merge? mean? It is a credit report that includes data from each of the three credit repositories or bureaus (the terms are used interchangeably), Experian, Equifax, and Trans Union. Each of the three repositories will report a slightly different score based on the individual models they use to determine your score. Lenders will take the middle score as the representative score to help determine your particular creditworthiness.

There is often a big discrepancy between the three repositories. I have seen a great many times where prospects have come to me with a stellar report from one repository and when we pull the tri-merge we discover old or erroneous collections or other derogatory information reported by the other repositories that may hurt their chances of buying a home. Whether you as a consumer do it or have a lender do it for you, pulling the report early allows you to spot any errors far in advance and allow you adequate time to have them corrected. In many instances your lender can have errors corrected relatively easily using services they have paid for already. In some instances there are charges for these corrections and they may be passed on to you at the time of closing, but they usually amount to only a few dollars.

Do not close out old accounts or open new ones unless instructed to do so. Age of accounts has an impact on your scores, so that Visa card account from fifteen years ago that you never use, but for some reason is still open is having a positive effect on your scores. It is showing fifteen years worth of positive history, so closing it may have a negative impact on your overall scores. Additionally, opening new accounts have the same negative impact because you have now increased your overall debt capacity and you may change your debt-to-income ratios and therefore your ability to qualify. This rule applies even after you have been approved for a mortgage. Many people want to go out and start buying furniture or appliances for their new home after they have been approved. Do not do this. Lenders reserve the right to pull an additional credit report up to the day of closing, so any new accounts may suddenly impact your loan or worse yet mean you do not qualify, which is not something you want to find out the day of closing.