Inquiries Archives - Page 23 of 61

financial wellness. Your credit report includes your revolving accounts — such as credit cards and home equity lines of credit — as well as non-revolving accounts like school and car loans. Credit reports also note any missed payments, the length of your credit history, and your utilization rate on each account. On the whole, the report acts as a central location for measuring your current credit health in detail.

This vital collection of data gathered by a credit bureau helps calculate your credit score and inform potential lenders, landlords, and even employers about your financial wellness, habits, and routines. Your credit report is also a place to keep yourself on track. View your borrowing habits at a glance, make adjustments to possibly raise your credit score, or even catch fraudulent activity. Overall, understanding your credit report is a crucial step in gaining financial confidence.

What Information Is Included in a Credit Report?

You may still be wondering: what is a credit report exactly and how much data does it include? Credit bureaus collect a range of information, from basic, personal data to detailed borrowing history in order to paint a picture of your credit habits. Identification details clarify who you are, where you’ve lived, and a bit about your life. They will list your full name and any alternately used names, your birthday, current and former addresses, social security numbers, and your phone number.

The meat of the credit report includes your account history including the types of credit accounts, how long they’ve been open, and their credit limits. Each month, your balance will rise or fall on your report based on payments or charges. This in turn affects the utilization rate on each card as well. Each account will also note your payment history, noting any late payments for up to around seven years. Your credit report will also include the number of recent hard inquiries, which usually occur when you apply for a new credit card or loan.

Certain public records and legal details — such as lawsuits — may also be listed on your report. It also lists if you’ve filed for bankruptcy, received a tax lien or had a bill sent to a collection agency. Though specifics vary, the majority of these details are wiped from your report after seven years, so there are often ways to improve your credit standing over time.

How Does Information Get on Your Credit Report?

A credit bureau, also known as a credit reporting agency, gathers this information in one place so you don’t have to. Though there are hundreds throughout the world, the three main U.S. reporting agencies are TransUnion, Equifax, and Experian. They receive information via lending companies, courts, and local government to build your credit record. Every month, an assortment of data transfers from these locations to the credit bureau database.

If you open a new credit card, make a purchase on your store card, or pay down a balance, this data is sent to update your report. The agency organizes the data and displays information on your credit report in a clear layout for you or a potential lender to view. This constantly updating system means that your credit score may fluctuate at times. It also allows you to take immediate action on any troublesome accounts or in the case of identity theft.

Why Is It Important to Get a Credit Report?

Credit reports are an excellent tool for guiding large financial decisions. Say you’re looking to purchase a home in the next five years. Your report allows you to fully assess how to raise your score and which credit accounts most strongly affect your overall financial balance. Your report is also a glimpse into why your credit score has remained low or stagnant. It could be helpful to request a report before applying for a new credit card or transitioning to a new phase in life like graduate school.

Checking your credit report at least once a year, even if you are not planning any large financial changes, is often suggested for several reasons. Credit reports allow you to catch any discrepancies either in how your data was reported or if someone attempted to open an account under your name.

Where can you get a free credit report? Free credit report programs, like Turbo, can give you a glimpse into your score and history. If you’re looking to improve your credit score, these tools may be useful for frequent tracking and do not count against your credit as a hard inquiry.

How Does Your Credit Report Impact You?

Potential lenders and employers may check your credit report for the same reason you check in on yourself. Your credit report may signal that you can be trusted to make timely payments and prioritize your financial health. Employers have been known to check credit reports in order to confirm you’re able to stick to contracts and agreements.

Credit reports are most commonly used to determine approval for loans, credit limits, and interest rates. If you have some troubling details on your account, lenders may protect themselves by offering higher interest or lower credit limits until you’ve proven a strong history of payments. On a higher level, credit reports affect your mortgage interest rate or simply your likelihood of being approved for the mortgage in the first place.

In some cases, your credit report could also affect your insurance rates and other monthly bills. Some utility companies and cell phone companies determine offers and down payments based on your credit score. Overall, the healthier your credit report, the more chances you’ll have to practice good borrowing habits with a range of accounts.

A credit report is a detailed tracking tool of your borrowing and repayment history. The greater you understand your credit report, the more it can act as a tool for financial growth. Feeling confident about borrowing and managing debt comes over time, and your credit report is there to help track your progress along the way.

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Apache is functioning normally

April 27, 2023 by Brett Tams

In a bid to increase its listing business, Redfin has launched a new tool called the “Price Whisperer,” which aims to find out the value of your home before you list it.

By value, I mean what someone is willing to pay for it at any given time. The way it works is pretty interesting.

First, you enter your address and contact information, along with your “Test Price,” assuming you don’t want Redfin to figure that out for you.

Then a Redfin agent will contact you to iron out the details of your Whisper, including the number of bedrooms and bathrooms, square footage, some pictures, and will probably discuss your “hoped-for price.”

From there, Redfin will attempt to garner interest for your proposed asking price by sending e-mails to active buyers searching in your property’s area. They estimate an average of 200-300 potential buyers will be contacted.

The e-mail asks these prospective homeowners if they’d be interested in your home at the price you set, as seen in the image below:

As you can see, there are three options: Yes, No, or Maybe. Within 48 hours you will receive a report on their responses.

Those who respond first indicating that they want to see your property in person will get first dibs at touring your house, assuming you actually decide to sell it.

At the moment, Price Whisperer is available to both homeowners who have decided to use Redfin to list their home and also those who aren’t even quite sure they want to sell.

Either way, you aren’t obligated to use Redfin, though clearly the company will want to represent the buyer, and will likely get the opportunity in many cases I think.

So far, the company has sent Price Whisperer e-mails on behalf of six homeowners to 1,200 recipients. More than half of those e-mails were actually opened, triple the rate the company normally sees for its e-mails.

And five of the six homes sold, with prices tested “near the top of the market.” Of course, conducting a test anytime during the past few months probably yielded stellar results, given how hot the real estate market has been.

Saving Face

But there is a nice advantage to using this tool – you can save face. Instead of throwing up your property on the MLS and discovering that you asked way too much, you can do the research incognito.

This way you don’t have to worry about winding up with a stale listing, which often leads to a price reduction, and ultimately a lower selling price.

Oh, and for the record, your address is kept private, though a little bit of sleuthing could make it easy to determine what home it is.

One of their examples was a home located in Dana Point, CA that was listed for $695,000 in mid-May, pending in a week and eventually sold for $701,000 about a month later.

As time goes on, Redfin hopes to gather more data so it can correlate Price Whisperer responses to the eventual sales price of a home, which is kind of like a Zestimate on steroids.

The problem with Zestimates, as I’ve noted, is that they rely on dated and often incomplete/inaccurate data, and display quite a large range in price. In short, no one ever seems to agree with the valuation.

Redfin hopes to eventually show would-be sellers how many Price Whisperer inquiries resulted in a sale, and if so, how much above or below the test price. This would ostensibly give the seller more confidence when it came time to list. Or even if they should list to begin with.

For example, an underwater homeowner might think they’re stuck, only to discover that a prospective buyer would be interested at a price high enough to part with the property as a standard sale.

So finally people can stop arguing and determine what someone will pay right now.

Real Estate Agents Aren’t Happy

However, one major concern with the Price Whisperer is that it creates a relationship with a Redfin agent from the get go, potentially shutting out other agents.

Yes, you’re under no obligation to use a Redfin agent, but chances are many people will if it’s their first point of contact.

Additionally, there’s fear that it could create situations where Redfin agents represent both buyers and sellers, though one Redfin agent cannot represent both.

Still, if two agents work for the same company, conflicts of interest can arise.

Some agents also expressed concern that a seller could conduct private tours and possibly sales, or be steered to sell to a buyer with a Redfin agent.

In other words, use the Price Whisperer at your own risk, and don’t be surprised if Redfin wants to list your property, or happens to find a buyer represented by one of their agents.

Of course, this type of stuff can happen with standard listings as well, so there’s never an entirely conflict-proof situation in the real estate world.

Source: thetruthaboutmortgage.com

Apache is functioning normally

April 26, 2023 by Brett Tams

A 10,405-square-foot home Frank Lloyd Wright designed for his cousin, Richard Lloyd Jones, and completed in 1929, is in need of its next steward.

With a listing price of $7,995,000 and an incredible architectural pedigree, “this is a once-in-a-generation property for Tulsa,” says listing agent Rob Allen, of Sage Sotheby’s International Realty.

Known as Westhope, “this is a house that people in Tulsa feel belongs to the city, that it’s part of their history,” Allen adds.

Despite the steep asking price, this is not the Sooner State’s most expensive home for sale—although it’s the second-most expensive property in Tulsa. Westhope is a close runner-up to this new $8,500,000 listing.

Standout structure

This Wright property is significant for several reasons: Its square footage ranks it among the largest of his designs. It’s the only textile-block house outside of California.

It’s also one of only three Wright homes in Oklahoma. (Two others are in Bartlesville: Price Tower and the Harold Price Jr. House.)

Local developer Stuart Price snapped up the home in 2021 for $2,500,000. He then embarked on a restoration, inside and out.

“This has been a passion project of Stuart’s,” Allen says. “He’s loved owning this house. He’s held fundraisers here. And [actress] Sophia Bush hosted her pre-wedding dinner party here last year. Since we’ve listed it two days ago, it’s received significant exposure and inquiries.”

Passion project

Lloyd Jones, publisher of the Tulsa Tribune and co-founder of All Souls Unitarian Universalist Church in Tulsa, owned the five-bedroom, 4.5-bath home until the 1960s.

The family who owned it next updated the kitchen and enclosed the patio to create a family room.

Allen estimates Stuart to be the sixth owner.

Stuart’s work on the home started with the outside, where “thousands of individual panels of glass, a lot of which were fogged,” needed replacing, Allen says. Concrete “textile blocks (also) needed to be repointed or replaced.”

Another major project was refinishing the stained-concrete floors. Price “brought in a company based out of Dallas to refurbish all the floors,” says Allen.

The kitchen got a much-needed refresh as well, he adds. “Price did his best to improve upon (the design) while still trying to maintain the look and feel of a Frank Lloyd Wright home. The cabinets are all original and stained. The countertops were a black granite, and he replaced those with lighter countertops.”

While not original to the home, the dining set was built according to a Wright design. Original to the home are built-in bookshelves and long, cushioned benches.

The 1.5-acre property includes an outdoor pool and a five-car garage.

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