Joseph Pettinella's blog

After spending months (or even years) boosting their credit score in order to qualify for the best possible mortgage, new homeowners are often dismayed to see their score fall after finally purchasing their dream home. Perhaps even more alarmingly, this decline often lags several months behind the purchase, making buyers question what actually caused it to happen. Luckily, a new study by LendingTree shows that this is not only normal, but generally corrects itself in less than one year! Keep reading to learn why scores fall after buying a home, how large you should expect the decline to be, and when you can expect the score to return to normal.

Many homeowners believe that they have the strongest insight into the value of their home; after all, only they understand all of the blood, sweat, and tears (and money) that have been put into countless maintenance and improvement projects over the years! Other people are certain that computer-generated automated valuation models (AVMs), with their access to millions of data points from the overall market, comparable properties, and buyer tendencies, can give estimates that no human can match. So which side is actually better at valuing a home, the owner or the AVM? As it turns out, there isn't really much of a difference between the two options, partially because neither is very good at the job!

We know that buying your first home can be very intimidating and even a bit scary. If you hope to buy a home within the next year, there are things you should be doing right now to prepare yourself for the process. In order to make the best decision for your future, it's extremely important that you are equipped with all the knowledge needed to achieve your goals. Tackling each challenge one at a time may get you there faster than you think!