Before you get a mortgage or refinance your home, you will need to consider your current credit situation and figure out if there is anything you need to do to improve it. Having bad credit can cost you thousands, if not tens of thousands of dollars over the course of a mortgage loan, and it can prevent you from refinancing.

Look at Your Open Accounts

Some people wrongly assume that having open credit accounts is a bad thing. In fact, many lenders won’t even lend to someone that does not have a minimum amount of open accounts. If you do not have enough accounts, you will have to open credit cards or even secured cards in order to appear as though you have maintained open credit. You should do this as soon as possible because these accounts often won’t be counted until they have aged substantially.

Lower Your Balances

When it comes to revolving balances, lower is better. You will need to pay down as much of your revolving balances as you can, but don’t make the mistake of spending all your cash. You will still need that cash for closing costs and down payments, and you cannot borrow for these items. You can, however, borrow for paying down your credit debt from friends and family without scrutiny, so you may wish to consider this.

Time it Right

You will always need to plan your credit repair in advance so that the changes have propagated by the time that you’re actually applying for a loan. This means you’ll need to do this at least 60 days beforehand. However, you should know that if you call the credit bureau you can sometimes get something called a rapid rescore. A rapid rescore gives you a new credit score right away and is often done for mortgage loans.

Get a Credit Repair

If all of this just seems too difficult or too complicated, you can always consider getting a credit repair consultation. Family Credit Repair will be able to handle the intricacies of improving your credit score without any real work on your part.