Loans, Refinancing, and Credit Checks

[Joseph Belgrad]

For those of us looking to build real estate portfolios quickly, I imagine we would find ourselves applying for a lot of loans over the course of just a few years and would then have our credit report pulled many times. For example, if I want to purchase 4 properties a year using loans such as conventional, FHA, 203k, hard money, etc. then I would have my credit pulled 4 times. In two years that would be pulled 8 times. If I want to use one loan at the onset and then refinance after 6 months or a year then that's two loans per property or 16 loans in two years. Now having my credit pulled once or twice every couple years doesn't really impact my credit, but once I start having many credit checks over the course of just a couple years, my score (and thus my financing (with traditional lenders) eligibility) would take a hit. So my questions are:

1. If I get a loan or multiple loans and then refinance with the same lender, would they still pull my credit for the additional loans and the refinances or would my history with them be sufficient?

2. What are people's suggestions for working around this issue? Of course I could go to private money lenders and partnerships, but I'm curious if anyone has any work-arounds for this issue while still using traditional lenders.