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An estimated 0.1% of adults have perfect 850 credit scores, and roughly one in ten people have scores higher than 810, according to this U.S. News article by Odysseas Papadimitriou of WalletHub. In the interest of aiming high, the article offers several suggestions and good habits to adopt, to improve your chances of achieving a great credit score.
With roughly 31 percent of people sporting “bad” credit and the average American carrying a “fair” score of just 668, according to WalletHub data, simply reaching the land of “good” credit standing would represent an excellent achievement.
Some people aim a bit higher, however, striving not just for good or excellent but for the mythical perfection of an 850 credit score. Is that even possible? You bet. Our data show that an estimated 0.1 percent of the adult population – about 245,000 people – is in the 850 credit-score club.
Reaching the peak of credit perfection is largely about bragging rights, however. Lenders don’t create unique underwriting standards for a fraction of 1 percent of the population, which means anyone with a score in the 90th percentile (810-plus) is likely to qualify for the lowest interest rates, the most lucrative rewards and the cheapest insurance premiums. Such effectively perfect standing will also reflect the type of financial responsibility that opens doors to employment opportunities and apartment options rather than limiting and forcing your hand.
There’s no specific road map to a score in the 800s, but there are several steps you can take to help your chances of getting there.
The fundamental task at hand is to inundate your credit reports with as much positive information as possible, from various sources if you can. That doesn’t mean you should go crazy with credit applications or borrow money for something you can afford in cash. Too many credit inquiries in a short time is detrimental to your credit standing, as is unnecessary debt, which also takes a toll on your overall financial health.
Rather, one relatively simple way to foster this positive-information overload is to gradually acquire a handful of no-annual-fee credit cards over the years, which you either pay off in full every month or refrain from using altogether.
Also, strive to maximize available credit and minimize balances. The more credit you have at your disposal, the better it is for your credit score. You should therefore strive for higher credit lines on existing accounts, in addition to adding new high-limit accounts to the mix over time. Adding to a secured credit card’s security deposit would even help, for example.
The first day of Spring is March 20th. But if there’s no snow on the ground in your neighborhood today, the Spring selling season has already begun – according to this U.S. News article by Teresa Mears.
If you want to sell your home during this year’s spring selling season, now is the time to get moving. Sellers can rest assured that if there’s no snow on the ground, homebuyers are already looking.
Today’s buyers, particularly younger ones, have high expectations. They are looking for a home in excellent condition, with all its best features showcased.
“It’s the HGTV effect,” says Tiffany Hardgrave, owner of Masterpiece Staging and Design in Washington, D.C. “People want to walk in and have everything perfect.”
With these preferences in mind, the most important things you can do are deep clean and declutter, removing big pieces of furniture. Next comes trimming foliage and sprucing up outdoor areas, including planting flowers if it’s not too early.
“As things are turning into spring, it’s time to power-wash the house and repaint the front door,” says Madison Hildebrand, president of The Malibu Life Team and founding partner of Partners Trust Malibu. He also appears as a real estate agent on “Million Dollar Listing Los Angeles” on Bravo. “Your color can pop at the front door,” he adds.
In addition to getting the house in top condition, you’ll want to think about your selling strategy. Are you going to use a traditional real estate agent, sell it yourself or use one of the do-it-yourself services that have sprung up in recent years?
You can also consult a staging professional. For $200 to $300, you can consult with an expert who will make recommendations on how to show off your house using the furniture and possessions you already have inside it. Or, for $3,000 to $5,000, you can get a stager to bring in all new furniture and accessories for an empty house. “Invariably, the cost of a stager is much less than the cost of your first price reduction,” Hardgrave says.
Whichever option you choose, you’ll want to make sure your home gets in front of the maximum number of prospective buyers, which means posting it on all the online portals (some are free while others require a fee if you post yourself) and maybe even creating a website. You’ll also want your home on social media, with both you and your agent doing the sharing.
“You want everybody to know you home is for sale because that’s how you get the highest price,” says Sissy Lappin, a veteran real estate broker in Houston, and founder of ListingDoor.com, which provides marketing tools to sell your home without an agent. “People want the information, and they want it in 15 seconds or less.”
It’s beginning to look a lot like Spring in the housing market, with some key indicators pointing to stronger homebuying activity. In this article, Brena Swanson, Digital Reporter for HousingWire.com, looks at the latest appraisal volume data.
Appraisal volume jumped 8.4% for the week of Feb. 21, marking the fifth consecutive week of increases, as the spring homebuying season draws closer, according to a la mode, an appraisal forms software company that tracks appraisal volume throughout the country.
While the increase the previous week was minimal, it still ticked up 1.9% for the week of Feb. 14.
Appraisal volume is an indicator of market strength and has some advantages over mortgage applications. Fallout is less for appraisals since they are ordered later in the mortgage process after credit worthiness determined and there are few multiple-orders.
While moving into a new home is a big and exciting step in our lives, moving to a new city at the same time is a major event. This article by Devon Thorsby, Real Estate reporter at U.S. News, offers some valuable advice for those who are considering a big move to a new hometown.
Ever have the urge to live somewhere else?
Lauren Modery did. In 2008, she packed up her car and drove from Los Angeles to Austin, Texas.
“I really needed to get out of the hustle and bustle of Los Angeles, but I still wanted to go to a bigger city that had a lot of culture and art,” says Modery, a writer and creator of the blog Hipstercrite. “Austin seemed like the spot, so I got rid of everything I could, put everything in my car and I drove to Austin.”
Whether you’ve got Austin or another city in your sights, the decision to move is a major one, and you’ve got several factors to take into account before you pack up everything and hit the road. Where will you live? How will you make money? And will the job you land be enough to live in that city?
How do you know when you’re ready to make the move? The trigger is different for everyone – whether it’s the job you want, reuniting with a loved one who lives elsewhere or searching for a better climate – but you should be careful to take every necessary factor into account before going to live the dream.
Regina Leeds, a professional organizer, offers a few tips to help you decide if a move is right, and if it’s right for you now:
Visit the city before you go there. It might seem like a no-brainer, but it’s easy to get wrapped up in the romantic idea of a place away from your current home. Visit it in the offseason, whether that’s the coldest New York winter weekend or at the height of humidity in Washington, D.C., and figure out easily overlooked logistics, such as whether you need a new wardrobe for different seasonal weather. If you’re moving for a relationship, Leeds stresses you should clarify the move is mutual before you uproot your life, plus work out details such as if you’ll live together, who pays for what costs and when the right time to move is.
Do your research. Research the general cost of the city, from housing and public transportation to the cost of moving, the most optimal way to sell off belongings you don’t need and more factors you’ll encounter with a move. If you have a family, you’ll want to research the schools in the area and decide which neighborhood and school would be the best fit for your children.
A lot of people have great credit, and it’s a goal that can be easier to achieve than you might have thought, according to this MarketWatch article by Christine Digangi of Credit.com.
People with great credit are sometimes described as the credit elite, but it may not be as difficult to join that group as you think. Roughly 20% of consumers with credit reports at least one of the major credit reporting agencies fall into the top tier of credit scores – scores that are generally higher than 780, on a scale of 300 to 850.
There are about 62 million American consumers with great credit (aka excellent or super prime credit), according to 2015 data from credit bureau TransUnion.
Even the next tier down (aka good or prime credit) includes a lot of people: 17%, or about 51 million, or consumers with credit reports have good credit. That’s a score between 661 and 780 on the VantageScore 3.0 scale. Having good or great credit means you have a better chance of getting approved for a loan or credit card, as well as qualifying products with low interest rates and minimal fees.
Finding a new home can be a fun and exciting event in your life, but for many, finding the right school for their kids can be a strenuous process. In this article, U.S. News Real Estate reporter Devon Thorsby outlines some simple steps you can take to find the right neighborhood for you – and the right school for your kids.
Finding the best schools for your children, depending on their needs and where you’re moving, can be a grueling process that includes comparing school districts, touring schools and dropping in on PTA meetings to learn even more. You not only want them to go somewhere they will enjoy, but you also want to be sure your child receives an education that sets them up for future success.
Keep in mind that while providing your child with a good education is important, the neighborhood you live in – and whether can afford it – also matters.
Do the research. With plenty of information available at your fingertips, get started with an online search to determine the school district, or even the specific school, you hope to send your child. Different sites offer test scores, rankings and demographic information, including student diversity by race and gender, the percentage of students on free lunch programs and the student-teacher ratio, to develop an opinion of the schools and school districts you’re considering.
Take other needs into account. Before you get caught up in a whirlwind of test scores, focus on your own child’s needs. Just because a school has slightly lower test scores than the next one doesn’t mean it won’t be a great fit socially. Examining a school from a wider perspective can help you avoid ruling it out based on a single data point, especially if that data point eliminates neighborhoods you could afford.
Know what you can afford. It’s not surprising that many of the neighborhoods with the best schools are also some of the priciest – where demand is high, prices go up. Avoid sacrificing too much for a quality school district, as enough bedrooms and space for your family to be comfortable is important to maintaining a sense of home.
Before you buy, visit the school. A tour of the school and the opportunity for your child to sit in on a class can help ensure the curriculum is the right speed. PTA participation, after-school activities and opportunities for you to get involved as a parent could make one school a better environment over another. Taking the time to meet with school or district administrators, as well as your child’s potential teachers, can help you decide if it’s an institution you feel comfortable with your child attending.
In a recent survey by Redfin, one quarter of all homebuyers surveyed who were looking to purchase a home chose to do so because of high rents. Here are some of the details of the report from Alex Starace of Redfin.
One in four homebuyers is looking to purchase because their rent is too high, according to a Redfin survey of 750 homebuyers this month.
That’s up from one in five in November, and up from one in eight last August. In each survey, when we asked buyers what most influenced their decision to buy, the only choice cited more frequently was a major life event, such as the birth of a child or a marriage.
Reflecting their measured financial approach, 67 percent of buyers said mortgage rates were important or very important in their decision to buy, up from 65 percent in November and unchanged from six months ago.
With the Federal Reserve’s December rate hike in the rearview mirror, buyers are now more confident that rates will stay roughly the same in the next six months. Only 10 percent felt they would increase significantly, compared to 14 percent in our last survey.
Of the buyers surveyed, 33 percent said they are more inclined to buy now as compared to their intentions a year ago, up one percentage point from the previous survey and up five percentage points from the survey administered in August.
Moving into a new home is one of the most exciting events in our lives. But one false move – choosing the wrong moving company – can turn that dream day into a nightmare. This U.S. News article by Geoff Williams highlights some of the red flags you should be aware of when selecting your moving company.
According to recent census records, about 16.5 million households, or 38.7 million Americans, move annually. But that doesn’t mean we’re always good at choosing a moving company. There are many fly-by-night, unlicensed movers and enterprises that either intend to con you – or are too disorganized and inexperienced to offer you a good move.
So how do you know you’re about to give money – and all of your belongings – to a crooked or subpar moving company? These three signs should give you pause.
The price is much lower than the competition. Sad but true. Everyone wants a deal, and you can’t be blamed for going to a lower-priced moving company. And while finding an affordable mover doesn’t mean you’re about to be scammed, if you feel like you’ve landed an unbelievable deal, it probably is unbelievable.
The deposit is too high. Your mover may ask for a deposit fee, and that’s perfectly normal, says T.J. Peterson, social media coordinator for Oz Moving and Storage, a company in New York City that’s been around since 1993. “None should be above 10 percent of the job cost,” Peterson says, adding that in his company’s case, the cost is a flat $50 deposit. When you get over 10 percent, start to become wary.
You know very little about the company. Like the pricing, this can be tricky, too. You might think you know enough about a moving company when actually you don’t.
Believe it or not, cool grays are hot. This Washington Post article by Katherine Salant explains how more homeowners and interior designers are turning to grays for their home interior designs.
If you ask a thousand people to name their favorite color, you might get one that would say gray.
But look at any lifestyle or shelter magazine and you’ll see that gray is hot and seemingly here to stay.
Though white remains the best selling color for most categories of home furnishings, gray is catching up.
Not only have homeowners embraced gray for things that are easy to change — such as wall colors or throw pillows — they also have embraced gray for things they expect to be using 10, 20 and even 30 years from now, including kitchen cabinets and bathroom fixtures.
As a color, gray encompasses everything from a soft silver to a stark, dark charcoal. It’s the perfect neutral because it’s compatible with almost every other color, and it folds easily into every style of decor. Dee Schlotter, color brand manager for Glidden Paints, succinctly summed it up: “Gray plays well with other colors.”
Though most people think of gray as a 50-50 mix of equal parts black and white, most grays are actually a mix of other colors that give it a unique chameleon-like quality. A gray wall paint that appears to be slightly greenish when upholstered furniture with a strong green theme is placed against it will acquire a slightly bluish cast if the furniture is reupholstered in blue tones. All this has obvious advantages: As London-based interiors blogger Kate Watson-Smyth pointed out, “You don’t have to worry about redecorating every time you change a piece of furniture.”
Gray’s trajectory toward a central position in the home-decorating pantheon began about six or seven years ago as a desire for a “new neutral.” After nearly two decades of nothing but “beige, beige, beige,” said Jackie Jordan, director of color marketing at Sherwin-Williams, “We were beiged out.”
A desire to connect with nature and bring the colors of the outdoors inside and timing also account for gray’s increasing popularity, said Lita Dirks, an interior designer based in Greenwood, Colo. “As we got through the recession, people wanted to ‘open the window’ and make a more efficient cleaner look that went in another color direction. All the softer colors of nature come from the family of gray, so it was an obvious way to go.”
