Does a Good Faith Estimate require a hard inquiry on my credit?

Hi Csween85106,It does now. The only other option is a lender can send you a fee worksheet or a 2015 itemized breakdown without a hard pull. The biggest issue for you is it's not really worth the paper it's printed on unless it's a full blown Loan Estimate & that requires a complete application & a credit report.| Please feel free to contact me for more information or help. | John Burke | Senior Mortgage Banker | Great Plains National Bank http://www.valoansdoneright.com | (877)228-9069 | Lending in ALL 50 states

No such thing as a "Good Faith Estimate".. it's low called a Loan Estimate (LE).. The law specifically states that a lender is not required to pull credit in order to quote someone a rate.. but the law also does not say that a lender has to quote you even if you don't allow them to pull your credit. The reason a lender wants to pull the credit is because not everyone with a good score can qualify.. I've seen borrowers with a 750 score not be able to obtain financing because of something that was on the credit report.. Also understand that all "Mortgage" related inquires inside of 30 days will only effect your score as "One" inquiry.. This is so that you can shop and it wont change your credit score each time you talk to a different lender.. However, because there are so many way to manipulate the numbers, it's near impossible for the average person know which loan is better than the other.. I always tell folks.. shop for a loan officer.. someone you like and trust.. rather than shopping for a rate.. I'm a preferred Lender with Arizona and California being my primary markets. If you or someone you know is looking for financing options, feel free to contact me or pass along my information. 480-287-5714 WilliamAcres.com NMLS# 226347 / RPM Mortgage NMLS 1541014 / AZMB0121893

Getting a loan estimate does not require pulling credit. But how dumb is that? You are asking the lender to 100% guess. Most people ask similar questions because of the huge amount of WRONG INFORMATION when it comes to pulling credit. Regardless of what anyone has told you, or you've read on the internet - for 99% of people, having a lender pull credit, and getting an inquiry on your credit report is completely meaningless and absolutely NOTHING to be concerned about.

it is called an LE (loan estimate) now but lenders generally send you a close proximity to a good faith estimate (worksheet estimate which encourages you to get a valid loan estimate). All three major credit bureaus, used by all lenders to review credit, have agreed to allow for multiple hard inquiries during a limited time period for the purpose of shopping for a mortgage loan. If you are going to compare 2 or 3 lenders try to pick them within one week, though you will have a two week period that the inquires are acceptable before you would get a hit on your credit score. Realistically, someone with a 770 score is not likely to drop to below a 740 fico score for spreading a few mortgage loan hard hits throughout the month (740 is as good as 830 for purposes of evaluating your credit score.) I would be surprised if 1 or 2 inquiries outside of the 2 week window caused more than a point or two drop in credit scores. However, the lower the current credit the more concern you should have with whether your credit scores drop even a little, so you might stay within the two week window. On the other hand if you get one hard inquiry now and then another one a month later I would not expect any change in credit score due to inquiries.