Checking Credit Score before applying for an FHA Loan

[Jacob Beemer]

Hi everyone, I am going to be applying for an FHA loan here soon. My question is should I get a credit report before I go and apply? Or have the bank run it? Also I was reading about AnnualCreditReport.com. Is that a legit site? Just wanted to know before I start entering my information. Thanks!

[Kevin M Finley]

Don't run a hard pull- use CreditKarma or something that will do a soft pull on your credit. It actually won't hurt your score. 

This gives you Transunion and Equifax. For FHA, the bank will run all three scores and take the average of the three. This will count as a hard pull on your account. To be safe- try to do all of your mortgage shopping within a week. Have ALL of your prospective banks run your credit within five business days. This will count as only one hard pull on your credit because it is all for the same purpose.

I am speaking from experience because I pulled for a conventional- then fifteen days later pulled for an FHA. I picked the WRONG lender, and my report expired 90 days later (took 120 days to close). They then had to pull another report. In total, I had three hard pulls on my credit in three months, which does not look good, when I should have only had one.

Good luck!