Heroes in Business - Experian Identity Report with Rod Griffin, Lifes Big Moments Buying a Home

Episode Date: May 22, 2023

Experian Identity Report with Rod Griffin, Lifes Big Moments Buying a Home. Rod Griffin is the Sr Director of Public Education for Experian. Extremely valuable information for making sure you know what to do when purchasing your first, or any home. Listen as David Cogan, Host of the Heroes Show and Founder of Eliances entrepreneur community learns all the facts about this important topic.

Up in the sky, look, it's captivating, it's energizing, it's Eliance's Heroes. Eliance's is the destination for entrepreneurs, investors, CEOs, inventors, leaders, celebrities and startups, where our heroes in business align. Now here's your host flying in, David Kogan, founder of E-Liances. Oh, I'm always so excited. There's nowhere else I would rather be. This is just, we've always got incredible information to share with you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you too. I'm still getting feedback when I interviewed the president of the United Nations General Assembly. So make sure you go to alliances.com, E-L-I-A-N-C-S.com. We have with us the weekly Experian Identity Report. That's right. And it's with Rod Griffin, Senior Director of Public Education for Experian.com, E-X-P-E-R-I-A-N.com. Life's big moments. This one is buying a home.

And we're speaking, as I mentioned, with Rod today. He leads Experian's national consumer education programs and works with consumer advocates and financial educators to help consumers increase their ability to understand and manage their personal finances and protect themselves from fraud and identity theft. So we always gain so much from you, Rod. You share such valuable and critical information that either we need or we definitely know somebody that does. So let's talk about this one, the big one, buying a house. What should people be concerned about by protecting their identity and what does that have to do with buying a home? Buying a home is the biggest financial transaction most of us make in our

lifetime. And we want it to go well and we want it to go smoothly. And having a compromised identity can complicate that process. So we don't want that to happen. As you go through the home buying process, we always encourage people to start early, report, know what's in it, verify that your identity has not been compromised because that's going to lay the groundwork for smoothing that process. And it can be a challenging process today. Buying a home is exciting, but it's complicated and it tends to take some time. So you want to make sure that your credit history is in good shape, that your credit scores are where they need to be so that you can qualify when you apply, and that your identity isn't going to cause any issues and that there aren't any unexpected things happening with your credit history. So check that credit report early and check it frequently.

You can check your own credit report as often as you like to know what's in it. Maybe subscribe to a monitoring service so that you can get your report at least once a month, know what's there. Also get a credit score and the risk factors so that you can address the things that are affecting that score negatively so that you can make sure that it's where it needs to be when you find that house that is the right one in your dream home so that you can get those keys in a matter of a few months and move in. So identity could be a stumbling block if it's stolen and things are appearing that could make it difficult to qualify to get that home. So know what's there, make sure everything's okay. What about, though, finding a mortgage professional that we can trust?

How do we know that it's safe to use this person? Because we're divulging a ton of information that could be used to steal identity. And what advice can you provide to our audience for this? Sure. When you are looking for a mortgage provider, there are some big names in the business, of course, so that most of us know who those are, the bigger banks and the big mortgage lenders. So know who you're working with. Talk to your local bank. If you're planning to apply for a mortgage loan in the near future, consider getting what we call pre-qualified first so you can go to a lender. If it's a local lender, you can walk right into a brick and mortar. You pretty much know they're going to be legitimate. If you're online, make sure that you check them out. There are organizations that can

help you identify a good mortgage professional. If you're looking for a realtor, the National Association of Realtors is a good place to check with. And they can help you, in many cases, find a qualified, quality mortgage lender as well. There are online organizations that will shop your loan to mortgage lenders. That can be a great thing or it can be a bit overwhelming, but you can generally know that they're legitimate lenders. So check with them. Check with your state attorney generals. Check with the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. There's great information from our government sources about how to identify and who are quality lenders and reliable lenders and safe lenders and that's kind of the first step if you get pre-qualified you'll

know how much you can afford and initially roughly it's not a full credit approval, but you know where to start looking so that if you are like me, you shouldn't look at the McMansion. You should look at a nice sort of modest home, and that way you don't get your sights set too high. Or maybe you do qualify for a bigger house, and you would want to look at that bigger home. So you know where to start, and that will help set your expectations. And then prior to selecting a home, consider getting pre-approved. That's a full process. The lender that you're working with will tell you, this is the check we will write for you. So you know exactly how much you qualify for and know that when you find that house, you'll

be able to get the financing to buy it. Excellent. And again, you're listening, watching me, David Kogan, host of the Alliances Hero Show. You know, it's the only place to go to where entrepreneurs align, alliances.com, E-L-I-A-N-C-S.com. We have with us Rod Griffin. He's the Senior Director of Public Education for Experian.

And what we're talking about, life big moments. And this one is buying a home. I'm always concerned, Rod, about what happens to the documents after they're used. Are they secure? Do they need to be shredded? Whose responsibility is that? Yeah, there's something called the FACT Act from a number of years ago that amended the Fair Credit Reporting Act. So you get deep into the law. But it implemented something called red flag rules. So any business or organization that is managing your identity and conducting a financial transaction, taking bill payment or making a loan, has specific requirements under federal law to protect that information.

So it has to be secured so long as they keep it and they only can keep it as long as they need it. And if they dispose of it, it needs to be shredded or if it's computer computerized data needs to be deleted in a way that's not accessible. Computerized data needs to be deleted in a way that's not accessible. And if they don't do that, if they just throw those documents into the dumpster out back, they are violating federal law. And I have seen instances where there have been prosecutions as a result of that. So businesses have a responsibility to protect the information you share with them and the documentation that goes with it when you're applying for a mortgage, for example. So it needs to be shredded. It needs to

go away. On the same lines, if you have documentation and you no longer want to keep it, I strongly recommend you shred it as well. A shredder is probably the easiest and least expensive protection against identity theft that we can get. Shred everything that has your identity on it that goes out your door into your trash can and to the recycling center. Great. Okay. So we go to Experian.com. What are the tools that we should do in regards to when we're buying a home that we need to use? Sure. If you go to Experian.com, search mortgages or buying a home, you'll find lots of great educational information, steps you should take, things you should think about. Also, get your credit report well in advance. Make sure it's in great shape. Start at least

six months in advance because the mortgage process is long and involved. When you start to buy that house, if you have a monitoring service, you'll be able to see through Experian services that everything is as it should be and that you're ready to go. And keep on top of that information. Use it to your advantage. If you are in need of improving your credit scores in order to qualify, consider something like Experian Boost. It can let you add, you can add actually proactively your cell phone payments, your utility payments, your utility payments, your rent payments.

And while initially those may not affect mortgage scores, they can help you qualify for new kinds of credit, new credit card, whatever it might be, that over time will then improve your scores that are used for mortgage lending. And that can help you qualify. So take advantage of the tools that are now available that weren't in the past in the last three or four years.

Things have changed a lot, and you need to use those tools that are available. Excellent. Well, again, this has been the Experian Identity Report with Rod Griffin, Senior Director of Public Education for Experian. Make sure that you go to Experian.com. That's E-X-P-E-R-I-A-N.com. This has been David

Kogan with the Alliance's Hero Show. Thank you again, Rod, for being here this week. Thank you, David.