Extended home search is killing my credit score! (funds, Wells Fargo, pay)

[ccmusica]

My husband and I have been trying to relocate to another state. We have been working on this for about a year now. We've had 3 offers on houses over the course of a year, all of which fell through.

We have tried to have a pre-approval letter for each one but every time we do that, they pull a hard inquiry. We also had our house refinanced within the last year (we are going to rent it when we move), and on the last offer which made it to escrow before falling through, I was dealing with a dishonest lender so I switched (another hard inquiry). Since we are dealing long distance, we could not do this quickly to meet the criteria of keeping the hard inquiries within a 15 to 45 day range.

So now my credit score has gone down from 765 to 749 and my husbands took a similar hit. If we have another one pulled, it will probably go down again. Any ideas on how to deal with this situation? Nothing else has changed on our credit report except some things have been paid down.

Is there some way to contest this hit on our scores?

[Bluecielos]

My advice would be to try to find a local lender in the place you are trying to move to. Don't do the online lender route! Or use a big lender like Wells Fargo, but call the local branch and speak with a person that is at that branch locally. That way you won't get lost in the system. Maybe your real estate agent can suggest a good local lender.

Also, depending when you refinanced your primary residence, that could be why your credit score decreased, not the inquiries. Though inquiries do hurt your score, it shouldn't hurt it too bad.
When you refinanced your home, your old loan was closed out and a new loan was put on your credit report. This new loan has no payment history yet and is a new loan, therefore it hit your score. Once you make payments on time for about 6 months, it shouldn't hurt your score as bad and it should go back up. Plus a score of 749 is great, don't worry too much.

[chet everett]

Bluecielos beat me to it, but the take aways are:

#1 FICO over 710 is very unlikley to ever cost you anything

#2 If you work with any kind of "relationship" oriented lender they will probably be able to minimize hard inquiries. If you would have done SHOPPING FOR A LENDER you would have never had to switch lenders. If your current lender is too big / too unprofessional start thinking about moving around even your checking and savings accounts to an institution that will be more responsive. That might be a mid sized bank where there are executives in the building you can actually meet with or a credit union or, if you have healthy portfolio of investments / retirement funds the kind of "wealth management" banker that will shepherd your loan through their system...

#3 If refi increased your debt load that is almost certainly what pulled down your score.

#4 Do not bother worrying about the scores / bothering the FICO people over inquires to scores BUT INSTEAD focus on the habits that will cause your score to rise. Make sure ALL payments are ALWAYS on time. Pay down debt whenever you can on an accelerated schedule. Get copies of your full credit reports from all three reporting bureaus and go through them with a fine toothed comb to find anything that needs to be cleared up

[gentlearts]

Go to a local lender where you do your banking. National banks do not give a s**t about you, and if you ever have a problem, it's a nightmare to get it resolved. Ideally, go where you can deal with an individual who has some decision making power. furthermore, it's better to give your local economy the business.
We made the mistake of having a credit card with Bank of America once, and it was a hassle, let alone a mortgage. Our banks are both local and they have always been fair and a pleasure to do business with. In case of trouble, you can call a human being you know and get it resolved.