Charles Ward - GuaranteedRate

If you are working on your credit based off what Credit Karma is telling you, stop wasting your time and have someone take a look at it! Your ACTUAL fico score can be as far as 100pts off what your credit karma says. And yes, more times than not, Credit Karma quotes it waaaay higher.

Cash Jobs? Cash checks? 1099? Small business owner? Anti-bank?

Things NOT TO DO when considering applying for a mortgage.

1) Do you cash all your paychecks and keep all your money in cash at home? Stop it. Immediately. Its 2021, banks need a paper trail!

2) Do you get paid cash at work and not claim the income on taxes? Stop it. Immediately. Being paid cash is fine, as long as you claim it. In this circumstance we use tax returns to assess qualifiable income. So if you don't claim it, you don't have it!

3) Self employed, small business owner, or 1099 contractor? We all know when its tax time we write off as much as we possibly can. However, we will also use tax returns for this. So if in reality you made 120k, but you wrote off absolutely everything and then some, and your tax form now shows only 20k in taxable income, guess what, on paper you now made 20k instead of 120k and wont qualify.