Tip of the Month - September 2008

Credit Score cont.

Source: Every Landlord’s Guide to Finding Great Tenants
By: Attorney Janet Portman-1st Edition

What is an acceptable range?

FICO scores range from lows of 300 to 400 to highs of 800 to 900.  High credit scores indicate less risk, and low scores indicate potential problems.  Fair Isaac estimates that about 40% of Americans have scores over 750.  Anything over 750 is considered to be a very good score by most Lenders and should be sufficient for your purposes, too (see more about evaluating the score below).

Most Landlords will sign on to the following guide:

340-500 worst risk
501-550 high risk
551-600 medium to high risk
601-650 medium risk
651-700 medium risk
701-820 low risk

Ironically, a score of 700 or above may indicate that this person won’t remain your Tenant for long, since someone with a score like this can probably get a loan to buy a house or secure a mortgage! Still many are choosing to remain Tenants, for perfectly good reasons.


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This web page was updated on 09/01/2008.