I’ll be honest with you – going into this Homebuying Adventure, I knew next to nothing about mortgages and what they entailed. Pre-qualification, pre-approval, fixed rate, APR … it was all Greek to me. What I did know was that I had friends who were paying mortgages that were less than my monthly rent and I wanted to be a member of that club. But to be granted access, I needed to bite the bullet, push aside my fears and meet with Mollie Bergstrom, my Allen Tate Mortgage consultant.

After sitting down with Maggie (my Realtor), Amy and I each had a better idea of everything we needed to put on our “to-do” lists. The most important of these was a meeting with Mollie from Allen Tate Mortgage. And being an enthusiastic person by nature, I couldn’t wait to get my hands on some listings and see what could very well become my first home.

Unfortunately my first-time homebuying experience wasn’t going to be “smooth sailing” as I had hoped. Apparently my credit score, which I’ll admit I had never checked before, was non-existent. At first I thought I had heard Mollie wrong – but no, my credit score was in fact zero. To ease the pain, which I’m sure was clearly visible on my forlorn face, Mollie told me that more than one-third of American adults (37 percent) admit that they do not know their credit score. Crazy, right?

While I have a debit card in my possession, I had been putting off obtaining a credit card. Procrastination? A little. But mostly, after hearing countless stories from my peers, I was nervous about potentially acquiring any sort of bad credit.

After Mollie gave me the news, I immediately thought my adventure was over. Dunzo. Finished. But no! All was not lost. She shared with me the following easy steps to build my credit (PS -- if you’re in the same boat, be sure to write these down):

• Get a credit card. After doing a little research, I found several options including a secured credit card which means I can make a deposit to my account and have a credit limit in the amount of my deposit.
• Pay for gas. Seriously. This was one of Mollie’s ideas because she knew how nervous I was about using the card once I had it (I’ve heard it can be a slippery slope to bad credit land). Remember, you need to build credit in order to prove your creditworthiness. Paying for gas (and then paying the credit card balance monthly) is one of the ways you can get there.

That’s it. I couldn’t believe how easy it was and silently kicked myself under the table for waiting so long. So right now I’m out there paying for gas and building credit, hoping to be better prepared to buy my first home when the time is right.

Amy’s experience was a little different than mine, so stay tuned for her endeavor with Mollie from Mortgage! By the way, what are some of the things you have done to build good credit?

By Genevieve Jooste