All Forum Posts by: Jerry Bruckenheimer

 Reese, glad to hear that's straightened out, would make me nervous about my banker using the wrong SSN but that's another story, lol. Just to add a note for anyone else reading along, you can massage your Fico scores higher by reporting 1% utilization on one credit card rather than having them all at 0. Just a tidbit for anyone who needs a little score bump.

Russell, and others who might read along, solid advice with one minor correction; You can get real Fico scores from Credit Check Total as well (much cheaper) as well as free from many credit cards you may already have or plan to get in the future such as, all Barclays cards(TU08) Discover (TU08), Chase Slate(EX08), all American Express (EX08), DCU (EQ04), Walmart Card (TU08), All Citi (EQ-Bank Card Enhanced score) Penfed (EQ-NextGen).

Hi, good inspection except for the "viewed roof from ground" I really dislike that, get up there and walk around, tell me if feels spongy, eyeball it up close! 

If I had to make a list it starts with items marked:

Safety

Rot

Leaks

Major Repair (Subfloor)

As you go through these, the tools are out, tick off minor other issues as you are working in the area.

Trust fund...new business, sounds like the tenant is doing great, you must have a very high value rental, what's the monthly?

;)

As a follow up, there is no mechanism associated with Fico 09 or this legislation that will prevent the view of the full credit file. There is no suppressed data it's just suppressed in the scoring model. Back to the answer; don't look at the score, don't tell tenants I'm not renting to you because of score, You will still see the data, do not use any tenant screening service that adopts Fico 09 as their scoring model.

@Russell Brazil

Believe me I hear you, I am not arguing against your position. As written: "ntroduced a bill that would prevent building owners from using FICO credit scores – as well as information about medical debt, consumer debt judgements and debts sent to collections – in selecting tenants to rent to"

This is exactly the Fico 09 scoring model, a true detriment to lenders, and the number one reason it will NOT be taken up by lenders as the scoring model to use in lending decisions, the vast majority will stick with Fico 04 and 08 in their approval decisions as they will prove a better predictor of risk and as you mention look at the overall data in the credit file.

The real answer is this bill is toothless. In effect, ok I can't use a Fico score as the reason I tell tenants no I'm not renting to them. No problem. But further and in reality this Fico 09 scoring model won't be used anyway, this legislation driven scoring model is a false offering to the masses to make them feel better about a horrible economy and their horrible credit scores. Toothless.

 It now updates every 7 days and CAN BE 100 points off your actual Fico score. Great for free and general tracking but depending on your credit file can be wildly different. Ravi is correct for a stable good credit file +-10/20 points.

Amex Serve

Just a side note: Using these services may not be as helpful to your tenants as you may have hoped, if you dig deeper in to the details from each Credit Reporting Agency you can see where rental payments will have no impact on the scores most lenders use in credit granting decisions, for example; Experians offering results in a tradeline that impacts Vantage scores or Experians own Plus Score, neither of which are used by.....well anybody for credit approvals.

It's the same premise as Fico 09 which will give less weight to certain derogatories i.e. Lowering the bar to accommodate the new economy. The key point in the article (if accurate) 'The bill would still allow landlords to obtain proof of income, as well as detailed credit reports that include information on total debt owned, bankruptcy and foreclosure history and delinquencies on current debt, the Daily News reported'

What's in the potential tenants credit file is vastly more important than any score. Looking at the full credit file tells you everything you need to know.

@Nick Rutkowski

I am doing the same, upgrading my rental in advance of selling in the near future. 

I chose to do it slightly differently to avoid a Heloc or 2nd mortgage encumbrance, so far I've paid zero interest and my numbers are going to be triple what your parents expect to spend.

I have a credit forum if you or your parents would like to dig deeper but the basic brush strokes are these.

1. Purchase Lowes/Home Depot Gift cards at two venues, a. Gift card resellers which are discounted from face value at 7-9% b. Lowes/Home Depot gift cards purchased at office max / staples using a credit card that offers 5% cash back.

2. Sign up /apply for credit cards that offer significant sign up bonuses ($400 - $1500) and convert those sign up bonuses to lowes/HD gift cards. These cards have minimum spend requirements to get the bonuses, you guessed it, knocked those out purchasing lowes/HD gift cards while at the same time earning more cash back or points from the purchase of lowes/HD gift cards. 

3. Paid off the credit cards monthly where possible but planned for debt and applied for another credit card, the Chase Slate - $0 fee and 0% interest for 18 months.

4. Applied for bank accounts that offered significant bonuses ($400-$600) many of these have requirements that you have to meet but they're easy including things like maintaining a small minimum balance or establishing direct deposit (can be done with certain ACH payments) ;) Converted those bonuses to lowes /HD gift cards.

5. Where possible, funded those bank accounts with credit cards that do not charge cash advance fees (depends more on how the bank processes credit card funding deposits than the credit card itself) thus earning points / cash back on those account findings by credit card purchase that I converted to....lowes/HD gift cards. and then simply paying back the credit card I used to fund the new account with directly from the new account.

There are lots of tricks and caveats but so far I'm 30k in on my upgrades, $0 debt, 0 interest, not to mention significant discounts to lowes/HD prices, and moving along nicely only risking unsecured debt and leveraging a great credit score.