The Ultimate Pre-Approval Cheat Sheet Part 2: Alternative Credit

Co-Written By Allan Salter and The Sherman Team 

For those of you guys who might just be tuning in, we have been partnering with preferred lender Allan Salter with Mac 5 Mortgage for this series that we are calling the Ultimate Pre-Approval Cheat Sheet. Allan has been a wealth of knowledge when it comes to the financing side to help you guys get pre-approved to buy a home. We jointly have helped people with many different backgrounds get into homes and we are jointly creating a reference manual of sorts for any of you guys who might be starting on their housing journey and needs tips on how to go about doing that. 
 
In part one we began talking about credit and with this part we are going to continue that discussion.  As we already know, credit needs to be at a certain score for one to qualify to purchase a house. It is at this stage right here is where a lot of potential hang-ups can present themselves, so we will need to remedy those hang-ups accordingly.  In the last part (make linkable) we talked about how different factors can affect credit scores, but what if you are in a spot where you need to build credit, or need more credit? In our collective experience we have found that people needing to build credit is quite common.  
 
This is where building an alternative credit history comes into play.  According to Allan, alternative credit can come from other monthly obligations that you might be paying (provided that you are paying them on time) but in order to find out what those could be, he just needs to take a second look at what’s going on in the financial picture.  Some of those could include: 

• Gas 
• Electric 
• Water 
• TV, Cable, Dish, etc 

• Internet 
• Insurance 
• Child Care 
• Rent-to-own items 
• Insurance Payments 

• Paying Rent 

 
 
We shot another video with Allan (embedded below) where he completely outlines alternative credit history and what other kinds of monthly obligations can help build an alternative credit history. If you happen to be reading this and if somebody in the recent past may have told you that you do not have good credit or you don’t have enough credit, please reach out to us and Allan can gladly take a second look at your situation and see what we can collectively do to help you.  
 
If there is anything you guys want covered on this pre-approval cheat sheet journey, leave us a comment and we’ll put it on the list.