Blogs in Real Estate

I hope you were able to get your credit reports.  If you don’t already have your report from all three credit bureaus, do that right now!  The first step in repairing anything (credit included) is identifying what the problems are.  Go to www.annualcreditreport.com RIGHT NOW, and request your free credit reports.  Once you have your credit reports in front of you, read on to learn how to read your credit report.

Okay, so now that you’ve got your report, you look it over and you see that it’s pretty confusing.  There are a bunch of numbers, abbreviations and terms you’ve probably never seen before. Trade lines, charge-offs, account review inquiries — how do you read this thing?

I’m here to help you.  I’ll tell you what the various sections of the report are and I’ll explain a little bit about each report.

A credit report is basically divided into four sections. They are:

Identifying Information
Credit History
Public Records
Inquiries
Identifying Information
Identifying information is just that — information to identify you. Look at it closely to make sure it’s accurate. It’s not unusual for there to be two or three spellings of your name or more than one Social Security number.  With regard to identifying information, you just want to make sure that you are the subject of the credit report.  If your name, address or employer is wrong, that’s not going to hurt your score.  But if the person on the report is not YOU, that might not really be you’re your score, particularly if the person on your report is a real deadbeat.  Point is, don’t be concerned about variations; just make sure that the person on the report is you.

Credit History
The next section is your credit history. This is where you want to begin looking for inaccuracies that can hurt your credit score.  Each account will include the name of the creditor and the account number, along with other information such as:

When you opened the account
The kind of credit (installment, such as a car loan, or revolving, such as a credit card)
Whether the account is in your name alone or with another person
Total amount of the loan, high credit limit or highest balance on the card
How much you still owe
Fixed monthly payments or minimum monthly amount
Status of the account (open, inactive, closed, paid, etc.)
How well you’ve paid the account.
You want to look at each “blemish” on the report that says you paid late or the debt was “charged off.”  Make a note of each blemish contained in the credit history section and move on to the next section.  In a minute, I’ll tell you what to do with these black marks.

Public Records
The next section of your credit report is the part you want to be absolutely blank. The public records section lists bankruptcies, judgments and tax liens.  These are the things that will trash your credit faster than anything else.  Again, make a note of anything that shows up in this section and I’ll tell you what to do with these blemishes.

Inquiries
The final section is the inquiries. That’s a list of everyone who asked to see your credit report.  Inquiries are divided into two sections. “Hard” inquiries are ones you initiate by filling out a credit application. “Soft” inquiries are from companies that want to send out promotional information to a pre-qualified group or current creditors who are monitoring your account.  Each hard inquiry brings down your credit score by 3 - 5 points.  Soft inquiries have no effect on your score.

Okay, now that you’ve looked through the report and have made a list of all the blemishes on your report, it’s time to go to work improving your score.  To do this, you’ll focus on three things.

Disputing inaccuracies and other blemishes
Minimizing other credit risk factors
Improving your “creditworthy” behavior
At this point, the quickest and most significant improvement in your credit score will come from disputing inaccuracies in your credit report.  Most likely, some of the “black marks” on your report are inaccurate.  Experts believe that 50% - 80% of credit reports contain inaccuracies.

So, here’s what you need to do first.  Look over your list of blemishes and identify any that you believe are incorrect.  Consult with your significant other or anyone else who may have an effect on your credit report (have you co-signed a loan?, etc.) to verify any inaccuracies.Once you’ve identified the inaccuracies, you’re ready to dispute them.  I’ll tell you how to do that in tomorrow’s installment of this Credit Repair Program.  For now, make sure you know which black marks are inaccurate and begin assembling any documentation that proves the inaccuracy.

I’ve noticed that as a Sucessful Real Estate Entrepreneur there are many behaviors that you will consistently find – that you will not find in the general public.

These are the behaviors that you will want to notice and implement as strategies of your own.  Face it … most Successful Real Estate Entrepreneurs don’t have any more ”smarts” than you do.

Most Successful Real Estate Entrepreneurs are just “thinking” differently and “doing” things a little differently than the rest. That is why they are  so successful and the general public is mearly struggling to make it.

Below I have listed some of the characteristics that you will want to pay close attention to. Tese characteristics can make the difference between a successful Real Estate Entrepreneur and a person who isn’t.

A. A Successful Real Estate Entrepreneur has a great attitude. An opposite example that I   hear all the time is the phrase “I had a bad day” or “I had agood day“.

Every day is what you chose to make of it (all tragic mishaps aside). A “good day” or a “bad day” is simply your choice of how you experience it. It doesn’t matter if you have a cold, or the car won’t start, or some other experience that “happened to you” that day.

Circumstances being what they are, the way you choose to interprets and reacts to circumstances is simply a “decision” that you make - nothing else.

How about choosing to be thankful for your healthand being born in this great country and the freedom to go out and make each day what you want it to be?

When I ask folks “how are you doing”, I’ll often get answers like “I’m hanging in there” and “another day, another dollar…”. Hanging in there? This is America - all the resources and wealth you could ever want are within your grasp.

You simply have to make the choice to “go get it”. I didn’t say that it would be easy (it rarely is) - I said that it is within your grasp.

B) Successful Real Estate Entrepreneurs think accurately.  

What I mean by this is that you need to get rid of the inaccurate common beliefs of the underachievers such as “rich people are greedy” or “selfish” and “the rich get richer” or “(insert a lame or pathetic saying here)”.

The person who achieves greater success can certainly (and often does) make larger contributions to their Church, Charity, and family, among other good causes.

Put any jealousy and disapproval aside when others experience massive success. Instead, be happy for them and try modeling their actions and habits. If you do, you will probably notice that they work a lot harder and smarter than the average person and therefore reap larger rewards.

I have a handful of millionaire friends and I can tell you from my experience, these are the people that always encourage others around them to achieve success. They truly desire folks around them to succeed and often they will  go well above & beyond to offer advice, resources, and support to help others achieve similar success.

The reason they do so is that they know what it is like to struggle on that journey to greatness and they want to help others because they have been there before.

Stay tuned for Part 2 of “The Successful Real Estate Entrepreneur”.

Mike Coraluzzi has been called the “lead generation expert” for real estate investors who don’t have the time to chase down deals. He is the author of the “No-Time Real Estate Investor Marketing System” a lead generating system that’s specifically designed to bring deals to the part-time real estate investor. Mike is a successful investor and coach who owns companies in Real Estate and Marketing.