Shopping Around for A Lender - Any BEST ways to do this?

[Jasmine Benford]

Hello there!

So here I am, newbie, going on my third month of BP, eager to get out and invest. After trying to connect with a lender, I hit a snag. No response after several emails and phone calls were exchanged. Not sure why but... time to search again!

I don't want to over-complicate things but I am concerned that shopping around is going to take some hits to my credit score. Can someone assist in the BEST way to shop for a lender...

My goal is to house hack....

[Bob Okenwa]

1. Interview them before applying. You can usually get a feel for things by exchanging emails and seeing what kind of response/response time you get and speaking on the phone to see if they are organized and can actually follow through

2. When shopping for mortgages, all credit pulls are scored as 1 pull if you apply within a certain amount of time. Here is the timeframe directly from FICO:

"Research has indicated that FICO Scores are more predictive when they treat loans that commonly involve rate-shopping, such as mortgage, auto and student loans, in a different way. For these types of loans, FICO Scores ignore inquiries made in the 30 days prior to scoring. So, if you find a loan within 30 days, the inquiries won't affect your scores while you're rate shopping. In addition, FICO Scores look on your credit report for rate-shopping inquiries older than 30 days. If your FICO Scores find some, your scores will consider inquiries that fall in a typical shopping period as just one inquiry. For FICO Scores calculated from older versions of the scoring formula, this shopping period is any 14 day span. For FICO Scores calculated from the newest versions of the scoring formula, this shopping period is any 45 day span. Each lender chooses which version of the FICO scoring formula it wants the credit reporting agency to use to calculate your FICO Scores."