5 Ways to Improve Your Credit Score Before Buying a Grand Strand Home

lorimendieta

Sep 9

5 min read

Credit score comes up in almost every first conversation with a buyer, and it's usually followed by some version of "is mine good enough?" The honest answer is that it depends on the loan program — but the more useful answer is that a score isn't fixed. It moves, and it moves based on specific, well-documented factors. Here's what actually goes into it, and five concrete ways to move it in the right direction before you apply.

What a Credit Score Needs to Be, by Loan Type

Minimums vary meaningfully by loan program, and knowing the range helps set realistic expectations before diving into strategy:

Conventional loans typically require a minimum FICO score around 620.
FHA loans can go as low as 580 with a 3.5% down payment, or into the 500–579 range with a larger 10% down payment.
VA loans have no official minimum set by the VA itself, though most VA-approved lenders look for something in the 580–620 range.
Jumbo loans (for higher loan amounts above conventional limits) typically require 680–700 or higher.
USDA loans similarly have no official minimum, though lenders commonly look for around 640.

A score below the conventional threshold doesn't mean someone is out of options — it usually just means a different program fits better, and that's exactly the kind of conversation a lender walks through case by case.

What Actually Makes Up a Credit Score

FICO — the scoring model most mortgage lenders use — breaks a score down into five weighted factors:

Payment history (35%) — whether you've paid past credit accounts on time.
Amounts owed (30%) — how much of your available credit you're currently using.
Length of credit history (15%) — how long your accounts have been open.
Credit mix (10%) — the variety of credit types you carry (cards, installment loans, a mortgage).
New credit (10%) — how many accounts you've opened recently.

Two of those five factors — payment history and amounts owed — make up two-thirds of the score. That's exactly why the strategies below focus there first.

Where Your Score Actually Falls: The Five Ranges

Before working on a score, it helps to know which range it currently sits in, since the effort required to move up a tier differs a lot depending on where you start. myFICO defines the five standard ranges as:

800 and above: Exceptional
740–799: Very Good
670–739: Good
580–669: Fair
Below 580: Poor

A "good" score of 670 or above already clears the conventional loan threshold with room to spare. Someone in the "fair" range isn't shut out — FHA's 580 minimum sits inside that band — but has more room to benefit from the strategies below before applying.

THINGS TO DO TO IMPROVE YOUR CREDIT SCORE

1. Pull Your Credit Reports and Fix What's Wrong

Before touching anything else, get a free copy of your credit reports (available through AnnualCreditReport.com, the source authorized under federal law and recommended by the CFPB) and read through them line by line. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau specifically recommends this as step one, and for good reason — errors on credit reports are common, and disputing an inaccurate late payment or an account that isn't yours can move a score without changing a single real habit. This is the fastest potential win on this list, and it costs nothing.

2. Pay Down Revolving Balances (Not Just the Minimum)

Amounts owed makes up 30% of a FICO score — the second-largest factor after payment history — and it's driven largely by credit utilization: how much of your available credit card limit you're actually using. Paying down credit card balances, even without closing the accounts, is one of the more direct ways to move a score, because it's the factor most within a buyer's control in the short term. This matters more the closer you get to applying, since utilization is typically reported monthly.

3. Pay Everything On Time, Every Time — No Exceptions

Payment history is 35% of the score, the single largest factor. There's no shortcut here: on-time payments across every account, every month, is what this factor tracks. A missed payment in the months leading up to a mortgage application can do more damage than almost anything else on this list can fix. If you have at least six months before you plan to buy, the CFPB's guidance is straightforward — pay every bill on time, every time, without exception.

4. Don't Open New Credit or Finance a Big Purchase Before You Apply

This is the one buyers most often get wrong without realizing it. New credit accounts and hard inquiries make up 10% of the score, but the real risk is bigger than the percentage suggests — a new car loan or a newly opened credit card changes a buyer's debt-to-income ratio, which a lender evaluates completely separately from credit score. The CFPB's guidance is direct: don't take out a car loan, make large credit card purchases, or apply for new credit cards in the months before you plan to buy a house. That includes furniture financing for a home that hasn't closed yet — a surprisingly common misstep.

One nuance worth knowing: rate shopping with multiple mortgage lenders doesn't carry this same risk. According to myFICO, scoring models treat multiple mortgage inquiries made within a short window — 14 days under older scoring versions, up to 45 days under newer ones — as a single inquiry rather than penalizing each one separately.

5. Let Older Accounts Stay Open and Keep a Mix of Credit Types

Length of credit history (15%) and credit mix (10%) reward what's already in place more than anything a buyer can build quickly. Closing an old credit card — even one that isn't used often — can shorten average account age and reduce available credit, both of which can work against a score. Carrying a mix of account types (a card, an auto loan, a student loan) also contributes positively, though it's not something to manufacture artificially by opening new accounts, which runs directly against strategy #4.

Timeline: What This Actually Takes

When improving your credit score, none of this happens overnight, and neither myFICO nor the CFPB publishes a guaranteed point-by-point timeline — score movement depends on what's being corrected and how significant it is. Fixing a reporting error can move a score within one billing cycle. Paying down high credit card utilization typically shows up within a month or two, once new balances are reported. Building payment history and account age is the slowest lever, and it's exactly why starting this process the moment you decide to buy — rather than the week before you apply — makes the biggest difference.

A Referral, Not Advice

None of this is a substitute for a real conversation with a mortgage professional who can pull an actual credit report and run real numbers — I'm not a lender, and score strategy gets specific fast depending on someone's full financial picture. I'm always glad to connect buyers with one of my preferred local lenders for that exact conversation, at no cost and no obligation.