What is a credit grade?

A credit grade is what is used to measure property owners' likelihood of repaying money they borrowed based on the past history. Everything from the first credit card to the home mortgage contributes to the credit history. The credit grade can be affected by many factors, such as how much money property owner owes and on-time payment history. Your credit grade (along with other factors, such as your brokers reputation) will determine the interest rate you maybe getting, and how much to loan.

How is a credit grade different from a credit score or credit rating?

A IRESE credit grade is a letter grade that IRESE assigns you based on property owner credit score, for use solely in the IRESE. IRESE obtains credit score from property owners credit report from Kroll (www.kroll.com), and assigns one of seven credit grades.

Here is a table that shows the equivalent credit scores for IRESE credit grades:

Property owner credit grade is determined during the application process. The numerical credit score is never displayed or disclosed to anyone.

Note: Having IRESE obtain your credit grade won't affect your credit score. Although we are making a request for your credit score, we're doing so at your instruction so no inquiries viewable by subsequent users of your credit report will be placed in your credit file. That means your credit score won't be affected when you register or submit an application. Only if you obtain funding through IRESE will an inquiry that others can see be placed in your credit file.

What is HR?

HR stands for High Risk. Property owners have a credit score between 520 and 559, which many traditional investors consider to be high-risk.

Why do credit grades matter?

A credit grade, along with additional credit data, is a measure of the likelihood that a property owner will repay his or her loan. When Mortgage Financing funded, IRESE uses the property owners credit grade and additional credit data to estimate the loss to investors of that credit grade.

Will my performance at IRESE affect credit rating?

Yes. IRESE communicates repayment and delinquency information to credit reporting agencies. The credit score will be adjusted accordingly, based on the loan payment performance.

For many property owners, taking financing through IRESE is a great opportunity to improve their credit score, which can lead to better rates in the future.

How can property owner look up credit report and score?

It's important to make sure the information in property owner credit report is correct. If information in property owner's credit report is incorrect, it can negatively affect the credit score, and therefore the ability to borrow money. It is recommended that property owners review credit report annually from each of the three credit bureaus (Equifax, Experian, TransUnion), especially to monitor for the possibility of identity theft.

Property owners are entitled to one free credit report annually from each of the three major credit bureaus ( Equifax, Experian, TransUnion). Learn more about how to order your free annual credit report.

How can property owner refresh my credit grade?

If it has been more than 30 days since property owner's last credit pull, property owner can refresh the credit grade by creating a new application. If it has not been more than 30 days since property owner last credit pull, property owner can still create a new application, but it will not refresh property owner's credit grade.

Why does a credit grade not map to FICO, Experian, Equifax, or TransUnion score?

IRESE uses a different scoring model than the scoring model used by other credit reporting agencies. Scoring models are algorithms that predict risk for different types of financing. IRESE uses the model from Kroll (www.kroll.com).

What should property owners do if they disagree with the credit grade?

IRESE uses the model from Kroll (www.kroll.com) to calculate credit grades. If property owner disagree with the credit grade, the first thing to do is to ensure all of the information major credit bureaus has in credit file is correct. A free copy of this information can be obtained once per year from each of the three credit agencies at www.annualcreditreport.com.

What should property owner do if there is something missing or wrong in the credit file?

If there is incorrect or missing information in property owner's credit file, only property owner as the consumer can correct the file. The file received from www.annualcreditreport.com should contain instructions for doing this.

Why does property owner credit grade not map to the score received from credit reporting agencie's web site?

IRESE uses a different scoring model than credit reporting agencie's web site. Scoring models are algorithms that predict risk for different types of financing. IRESE uses model from Kroll (www.kroll.com). View IRESE's policy on changes to property owners credit reports.