How do you avoid so many credit inquiries?

[Katrina P.]

I am in the process of loan shopping. Can anyone tell me if it's possible to avoid so many credit inquiries when loan shopping, or just purchasing period? If I'm buying 5-6 houses per year, that could be very ugly on my credit...

[Nate Worcester]

Check out this article which touches on that very subject. Essentially, current scoring models treat multiple inquiries in a short time as one inquiry.

However, you could always cultivate private funding sources which don't require a credit check.