Credit Setback - Hard Money Loan (Houston)

[Account Closed]

I have spent the last 3 month trying meticulously to take care of my credit and not have anyone check it unless absolutely necessary. I have a pre-approval letter from an investment mortgage company, but wanted to have one for hard money, based on a need with working with a wholesaler.

I applied last week with a hard money lender and woke up this morning with a rejection email in my inbox. Come to find out, a company called RJM Acquisitions, LLC has put a collections on my credit report on an account from a book club that I was never a member of. Also, one of the mortgage companies that I previously applied for ran my credit twice the same day and it showed up on my report.

I'm in the process now of sending letters to the credit company and the collectors to verify the account or have it removed immediately, but this has set me back at least a month, maybe more.

Has anyone in Houston worked with a hard money lender that basis less on score? My score is still above 660, but the collections and excessive inquiries are eating my lunch right now.

[Joel Owens]

The inquiries are not is not killing your credit.The recent collection IS.

The collection company could care less.

What you need to do is pay the money to pull from all three credit agencies ONLINE. Sure you can get a tr-merge credit report from a broker but the credit companies will not let you dispute it that way.The credit reporting agencies want your cash.

As soon as you set up an investigation and dispute with them online it will get the ball rolling.Within 30 days the reporting company has to show proof the debt is valid or it gets removed from the agencies.

Usually these companies send a letter wanting to settle on cents fro the dollar before they start reporting to the credit agencies.The reason is once they know they report it their leverage to get payment goes away as credit is damaged.

If this book thing really is yours you need to negotiate a "payment for deletion" instead of a "payoff" or a "paid in full" which stays on the credit.

The payment for deletion gets the whole thing wiped off your credit and can never return.