All Forum Posts by: Chris Scully

Here's what the myfico website has to say about credit length, which makes up about 15% of your score:

I haven't heard of anyone getting unsecured lines again, but it has to loosen up some time.

I can absolutely guarantee that if you had kept the card that you got when you were 18 and added the second card, your credit score would be higher. But, as they say, that's water under the bridge now.

Time is a big factor in obtaining credit scores above 720.

Having said that I have helped people starting out with no credit get into the 700 range in about 6 months. That's about as high as you can go in short period of time.

A very important rule of thumb - Once you open a revolving account (such as a credit card) never close it. The length of time that account is open will continually figure positively on your credit score. You also have to keep it active. I suggest using it every month or two for a small purchase that you can pay in full when the bill comes.

Credit Card advice - you do not have to carry balances on your credit cards to achieve good credit. Carrying credit card debt and good credit are not the same thing. You can achieve a good credit score by using your credit card as a convenient way to make purchases that you then pay off at the end of the month.

I too am interested in buy Brian won't touch condos.

The consideration of time spent that has been brought up by a few posters is something I hadn't considered. Wouldn't want a property to take up too much of my time so would have to factor that into my evaluation of a deal.

Thanks for the welcome everyone.

@Charlene - I'm in Burbank

Alternately you can highlight the link you pasted and hit the link button once. The forum software will put the appropriate tags around the highlighted link or highlighted text.

Hi. I'm a new member and new investor in southern California.

Looking forward to learning from the community and eventually being able to make useful contributions to the discussions here.