Shopping for Loans While Avoiding Impact to Personal Credit Score

[John Jacobus]

I'm looking for best practices to employ while shopping for mortgage loans for investment properties (small multi-family and SFR). My standard approach is to pursue 3-4 lenders when applying for a mortgage. I typically select the one with the most favorable rates and terms.

The problem with this approach is that it results in 3-4 credit inquiries on my credit report, which negatively impacts my credit score and results in higher rates and/or points than I normally would have obtained had I only pursued one lender.

I'm curious if others have experienced this issue and have employed successful workarounds to avoid multiple credit inquiries during the loan shopping process.  For example, in theory I could make a personal request for my credit report from all three bureaus and provide these copies to all lenders.  This would result in no credit inquiries and no negative impacts to my credit report.  Has anyone been successful with this approach?  What other methods have worked?

I appreciate any insight or recommendations you can share.