EP 482 – The Ten Biggest Credit Myths with Merrill Chandler

This is the no Closer show where you get the latest developments in distressed note investing and learn the secrets of how you can control millions of dollars worth of property for pennies on the dollar. Get educated and entertained by someone who has closed thousands of deals and lives to support you in achieving the same. Now, here's your host, CEO of We Close Notes, Scott Carson. Good morning, good afternoon, good evening, everybody. Welcome to this episode of the Note Closure show. As always, Scott Carson. Excited to be here with the day. Big shout out to our Note Nation listeners all across the country are listening in on our different AM FM radio stations, along with all our podcasts and itunes. Listener, thank you so much for listening and helping to make the no Close show what it is today. But we are excited. It's been a few weeks since we've had our good buddy Merrill Chandler join us, the fundability expert on how to get you effable out there who's been gallivanting across the United States on his funding roadshow with him and his sidekick Jess together. But we're excited to have you guys back here because we've got a really great episode here on the Note Closure today. I think everybody's going to take some notes on this, right, Merrill?

Absolutely. Guys, grab a pen and paper if you haven't got one already, because all of you can get a transcription of this later. I'm telling you, you got to know what we're talking about today because it literally takes us to the pointy end of the credit myth spin, right? So we got to cut away the fat and get to the truth of matter. And so let's talk about the lies first, right?

Yes. That's the thing. Because from knowing you for years and then going through the boot camp and online and you did an amazing webinar last night on mortgage securitization out to the funding hackers group and the funding hacking bootcamp. Which is great. We'll get through those dates a little bit later on. But I was thinking about what are we gonna talk about today? And there's always so many myths. And that's one of the, I think, biggest aha that we have for from people going through the funding hacking bootcamp is the myths we're all taught. So I thought, hey, let's do the 10 biggest myths. And you're like, oh, that's even awesome. We'll start with the falsehoods and come back with a counter the truce of the top 10. How's that sound? Work for you, Merrill?

Yeah, works for me. Let's get Rid of what is so.

The number 10 and work our way up here. The number 10 myth, Merrill, about credit is what?

All right, so number 10 is that paying your loans off early is a good thing. Okay? Number 10, which is the corollary that paying interest is bad. Alright? So we're going right up against everything that we talk about with our dear friend and compatriot in the financial marketplace, David Ramsey. Interest is bad. I was taught growing up to tell a quick story. I was taught that in playing Monopoly, my uncle would always tell all the kids who were playing, they would say like, okay, now the baker, who wants to be the baker. And nobody wants to raise their hand because that's just a pain in the butt, right? But he said, oh, now the baker, because it is a pain in the butt, the baker gets to charge interest. So we went off script with the game and you started charging interest. Now, as you guys all know, in a closed system, whoever charges the interest in that system is going to collect all the money ultimately, right? So we've been programmed and he won every single time. And I learned the myth just like everybody else, that paying interest is bad. The thing is, is this goes with number nine as well. That debt is bad. So let's talk about both those together. That is not bad if it is strategic to your long term goals. If you're looking to be a real estate investor or a note buyer, an entrepreneur, there is no bank in the country, no financial institution in the country that is going to just look at your driver's license and go, you know what? You look like an honest fella. I'm going to give you $50,000, right? It's not going to happen. They want to see proof. They call it your performance data on all your previous loans. If you don't have debt that you're servicing on a monthly basis, they got nothing to go on. But the second you incur debt, you also have interest. Now people say, even in last night's conversation last night, people were going back and forth saying hold it, but I'd rather get a lower interest auto loan with a credit union than a tier one or tier two bank. So here's the framework we always teach. If you had a million dollars, would you spend money, cold hard cash, protecting that million dollars in, call it gold bullion? Would you buy security? You can't put it in a bank. Would you pay money to protect that million dollars? Why? Because that million dollars in gold bullion is a asset. Most of us, here comes the myth. Most of us have been taught, the vast majority of us have been taught that our credit reputation is not an asset paying interest is. It belongs on the profit and loss statement, right? So you minimize expenses to improve your profits. Well, if it's an asset, you pay money to protect it. But if you try and minimize the cost, if it's on P and L, that's why there's P and LS and balance sheets, right? Or asset statements, your single greatest financial reputation and biggest financial asset is your credit profile. Your borrower profile that we call it. Your borrower profile is everything. So if you minimize and you don't invest in that borrower profile, no one's going to give you the things to buy those multifamily, buy those tranches of notes and expand your business. Now, if you're never going to do anything, if you're going to die a W2, no harm, no foul. If you're going to die a W2, you're going to take what comes to you and work off Social Security and work at Walmart. I shame everybody as I say this. No harm, no foul. But if you're going to work at Walmart, you know, when you're 70 years old, take ends meet, then don't incur debt and don't pay interest. But if you want to value your personal financial reputation, it is the single greatest leverageable asset that you have. And that requires you giving current and future lenders something they can sink their teeth into and see how you treat other people's money. OPM. So number 10 is paying interest is bad. It's not bad, it's strategic. I'm not saying go get a bunch of debt. I'll show you how to perfect amounts of debt. Number nine, debt is bad. It's not bad. It is strategic and we want to leverage that so people give us really inexpensive money to do really awesome things. Like all everybody who is picking up notes and real estate, et cetera, et cetera.

It's all about leverage too. And what you're. And one of the biggest questions people ask, well, should I pay my house off early? I'm like, no, if you've got like a 5% interest or less.

Cheapest money on the planet.

Cheapest money on the planet. Take your money and go out and invest it and make you 8, 10, 12% versus sinking it into an asset that you pay off. Now you can't do anything with that equity without having to go back and get a loan against it. So save it, leverage it and go from a great two points. Number 10 that paying interest is bad. Number nine, that debt is bad, which we both know to be incorrect. That's awesome. Okay, so what is number eight?

So number eight, it's best to pay your balance to zero every month.

Sorry.

So Scott already went by Funding Hackers boot camp and learns deepest possible dive into this technology. Right. There is a secret date that you'll have to go to the bootcamp to get the deep dive. But here's the rear digestion condensed version. There is a secret date that's called the reporting date. It's the date every one of your accounts gets reported to the Bureau. Most of those dates are in the middle of your billing cycle. So every single time you believe you're paying your balance down to zero, you pull a credit report. It will show an artificial balance, which then messes up your utilization, which drops your credit score and more importantly, ruins your fundability. So words out of Ethan Dormhorn's mouth, the chief scientist over the credit score development teams, personal and business, when we asked him, so, what kind of balance do we keep? And he says, I can't tell you the exact number because there is a formula. And we have dialed that in significantly. I've been NDA'd give it assigned an NDA from FICO. But he said, less is better than more. When it comes to a balance, some is better than none. And there is that little magical thing some people say, oh, it's less than 30%. No, it's far less than that. You need to find out again. Funding Hackers Bootcamp, we literally go through the metrics of measuring all this. So I can't tell you what your balance should be, but you will go through and find out exactly what it should be, at least as a cursory amount. So, number eight, it's best to pay your balance off every month. No, it's best to have a small, small balance. And then the mechanics of working all of that out is available to all of us. You just. But no, zero balance is not a thing if you're looking to look awesome to current and future lenders.

That's why people also get all bent out of shape. Like you said, I paid my credit card off each month. Why does it keep showing that I have a balance? It's all about the recording date. If you think it's halfway through the month or compared to where your bid, where your payoff number is, or does it vary a little bit week before, week after, is it vary?

Yep, exactly. Exactly. There is a measurement, but again, we have document. It's A workshop. This is not a sales pitch. You don't go to funding Hackers boot camp. We do a deep dive using documents that examine your very own credit profile and your borrower profile method trick. So.

Exactly. Good stuff. All right, so that's number eight, verse seven here on the 10 biggest mental credit.

Number seven, all credit cards are created equal. See, he knows this stuff because we addressed every one of these and literally two dozen more myths than the ones we're talking about at the bootcamp. Right, but all credit cards are not created equal. There's actually six, 16 different valuations for credit cards. Yep. I just said 16. There are four tiers of institutions. Tier 1, 2, 3, and 4. Tier 1 is the best tiers of institutions. And then there's point value contribution of 100%, 80%, 60% and 40%. So that matrix creates 16 different ways that different credit cards and even loans, all credit instruments fit within these 16 dynamics. And the best is tier one, 100%. And the worst is tier four, 40%. And I'll give you a hint right now, all mall store cards, every card, retail card that you get at a mall is a tier 4, 40% junk card, low value card. That actually hurts and harms your credit profile and your borrower profile. FICO actually gives a negative tick. It's called a negative indicator on your credit profile. If you have even one of those. It says there is a consumer finance account on this credit profile. Bad juju. So now you can be a consumer profile. Godspeed, God bless. Or you could be a professional borrower profile. Guess which one gets the fifty and hundred thousand dollars business lines of credit from multiple banks.

Professional.

Exactly.

So my Victoria's Secrets card is hurting me then, is what you're saying?

Yes, but you have to evaluate your lifestyle choices in order to make sure. Because we only do all of this to have a good high quality of life. Right. And so a quick story. So I did have one woman who watched my presentation and she was like, she watched the Funding Hackers boot camp. She came up to me, I said, meryl, I want to do some coaching with you. I want the details in my particular situation, but I'm telling you right now, I'm not getting rid of my Kohl's card. And I'm like, I'm sorry to hear that. So many people requested, but can I keep this? Can I keep that? Do we actually have an allowance in our model, in our funding model, to what we call a lifestyle card allowance? So, yes, you can. If you have to, you can Keep your Victoria's Secret card, Mr. Scott Parson.

Thank you. I appreciate it. That's good stuff. All right. That takes us, I believe, to number six or number seven.

Number six.

Number six. Biggest myth when it comes to credit.

Yeah.

Not wearing a garter belt. I'll tell you that right now.

Paying your bills on time is all you need to do to have great credit. Now, there's a couple of little misdirects in there. First of all, what is great credit? Most people think credit is a score. We'll talk about that later. Great credit really means, will a lender lend me money? Can I get a mortgage, an auto loan, business line of credit, commercial loan, real estate, etc. Good credit we define as fundable, not fundable. I don't care if you have an 800. And there are plenty of people out there who have 800 plus credit but don't have the million dollars in business credit lines that should go with that. So great credit. We got to define it. Then they're saying, paying bills on time is all I have to do. No. So I'm sitting at an event and I do a presentation, and this sweet woman comes up and says, look, here's the thing. I already have an 820 credit score. And I'm like, that's awesome. Where's the million dollars in business credit lines that go with that? Why are we talking if you've already got. Well, no one will lend money to me. And I'm like, so why do you think you have an 800 plus score? And she says, I pay my bills on time. So. So that's the Myth. FICO measures 40 characteristics of your personal credit profile. That borrower profile. 40 metrics. Paying your bills on time is one of them. And we already know that we don't want to keep a zero balance to be determined what the balance should be. But I'm telling you, paying your bills on time is one of 40 things that is measured by FICO for your borrower profile. They make you fundable. And the reason why she had an 820 and couldn't get a dime is because it was all of her high credit score. Technically, me, you just get more of what you've already got. She had a lot of consumer accounts, and so while she would qualify for the highest and best rates for a new mall store card, Chase bank is not going to give you a $50,000 business line of credit on your Home Depot reputation. So, number six, paying your bills on time is all you need to have good credit. First of all, what is good credit? It's being fundable. And no, paying your bills on time is one of the 40 things.

Awesome. Good stuff. So that takes us to number six, then. Is that correct on number five? Okay, hang on. So let's recap 10 through five. What's number 10?

10 is. Paying interest is bad.

Paying interest is bad. Number nine.

Debt is bad.

Number eight, it is best to pay.

Your balance off every month.

Number seven.

Number seven, all credit cards are created equal. Number six, Paying your bills on time is all you need to do to have good credit.

Awesome. Five golden rings.

Well done. Barbershop quartet time. Here we go.

That's right there. All right, so this takes us to the top half. What's number five?

Number five is credit is bad or good? Bad credit is bad. Good credit is good. It's black or white. You know this from the boot camp. It is a spectrum of gray people. Because everybody defines good credit and bad credit as, do I have derogatory accounts or do I not have derogatory accounts? But nobody, nobody until we're having this conversation. Until funding hackers and was born, nobody was having the conversation. Am I fundable or not fundable? So the solution to this myth is stop talking about good credit and bad credit. It's not about good credit or bad credit, is it? Are you fundable or not fundable? Are people giving you money or not giving you money? And getting a car is different than getting a $50,000 business line of credit. If they can give you a car but not a $50,000 business line of credit, you're not fundable for the thing that you can leverage, write a check, do a deal, and make things happen in your life. Right? So the myth is good credit. Credit is bad or good. It is not. It's are you fundable or not fundable? Number one. And then the degree of fundability. Are you meeting your goals? Are you hitting the thing as a real estate investor, as a note buyer, as an entrepreneur, do you have the financial instruments to promote and move your business forward? If you do not, you are not fundable. You can have great credit. You may not have a single negative account and still not get a dime. Guys, yet. I have clients who have derogatory accounts, literal late pays or collections or bankruptcies on the credit profile and are fundable because it's not about good or bad credit or good or bad accounts. It's about what metrics have you given the underwriting software, the approval software for lenders in FICO that prove that this new Lender should give you money. What have you given to them on your personal credit profile? That borrower profile, what are you telling them? Where they'll be like, hey, I want to give them some money even if you have a negative account. So number five, credit is good or bad? Nope, it's are you fundable or are you not fundable?

So would you say it's 40 shades of gray?

It's 40. Yeah, Fico, 40 shades of gray. Right. Here's the other thing. I'll even add a little more and I'll go into a little more detail on that one. Guess what, guys, it's one thing to get a $5,000 credit card. It's another level of fundable to get a hundred thousand dollar business line of credit unsecured at prime plus one and a half, 2%. Guys, that's why it is 40 shades of gray. Because just because someone gives you five grand in a credit card doesn't mean that they're going to entrust you with their most precious credit instrument. Write a check, do a deal. Those are the scales, so yeah, exactly. Variable, an approval, not all approval. Ooh, that's a good one. Sky, write that down. Not all approvals are created equal.

Thank you, Sky. Sky's in the background.

For those that can't watch all of our listening audience. Sky catches all the fly balls that I have. Get it down on paper so we can put it in the funny hackers boot camp.

She's the proverbial Merrill flycatcher.

No, truly, truly. I like good stuff.

So that was number five. That takes us to number four. Correct? Yes, number four. Biggest finish when it comes to credit is credit score.

Credit scoring is a simple process. Now people say I have a credit score. We'll get into that in a second. Credit scoring, remember now we have 40 characteristics that are being measured. I'll blow your mind just a little bit further. There are 13 scorecards that those 40 characteristics are grouped into for eight for good credit and five for bad credit. Because those scorecards are like, think of the 40 characteristics ingredients in a piece of cake. Well, the 13 positive, they put in certain amounts to make this ingredient to create 800 plus fundable profile all the way. On the other one, the five scorecards that deal with derogatory accounts, is it a bankruptcy or late pay? Is the collection over $100? Under $100, there's a whole group of them. There's 13 different ways that they shapeshift those 40 characteristics to fit your model. I won't even get further Than that, you know me, I start geeking out, right? Especially with somebody who knows most of what I'm talking about already. So it is not a simple process, but it creates a simple result. That's why we, our students, when we teach in the, in the boot camp, when we in a coaching client, we don't care about score, we care about the quality of the profile. Because that borrower profile is what lenders software is going to look at. That's what a lender is going to approve you on. So we know that scores follow the profile, but profiles don't necessarily represent a good score. So it's a non symbiotic relationship.

No, I get it, I get it. And that's the thing that's beautiful about fundraising hack and boot camp is you got the scorecards we literally are going through, pulling off the credit bureau reports from the three major ones and filling that out to kind of see where that starting point is to build that fundability profile. Fundable profile, right?

Yep, that's correct. So credit scoring is not simple, it's not just. And it's not to create mystery. It's simply that there are a number of ways to skin this fundability cap. The beautiful thing is, is that the score, the FICO process, the algorithm is so trustworthy that lenders are now moving to all automatic underwriting. From having human beings do manual underwriting, they're moving even mortgages. There are a few automatic underwriting mortgages coming up, which has been the slowest because they have to fit the Fannie Freddie guidelines, right, to be conforming for the secondary markets. They are even coming online to automatic underwriting, which means you fill out an application, your docs, they review your docs, and you don't even talk to a human being. So that under radical. So it is highly predictive. And if it's highly predictive and we know what they're trying to predict, guys, that's why we call it funding hacking, because we know the insights, we're not taking advantage of the system. We're looking at the inside scoop of what they're trying to measure. And then comporting, changing and modifying our behavior, our borrowing behavior to reflect what they need to see. And they'll be like, oh yeah, you look great.

Good stuff. That takes us to the top three. Number three, what's the number three myth associated with credit?

Number three, becoming an authorized user is a great way to build your credit score. Not so, ladies and gentlemen, let me tell you again, I hearken back to my, I have met with the credit score development teams, both business and personal at fico two times in a row. And this November, I am going back again for our third round with a whole new slew of dialing in questions so that we can make the process, this fundability process, even easier to implement. So out of the mouth of the team at FICO, they said that they only count an authorized user 40% positive points. So let's say you own an account and let's say you get 100% of the possible points. Let's call it 100 points. If you're an authorized user, you only get 40% of those points. You only get 40 points contributing to your profile. But if they go, if they have a high balance, it counts 100% against you. Negatively, if they go late on a payment or over limit on a payment, it goes 100%, not 40% negative. It's you inherit 100% of the negative impact that the owner of the account has. Now, the part of the myth of the authorized user, sure, people have done it, hey, my son or daughter is going to college. I just want an emergency card or otherwise. But when they see a score responding to positively to that authorized user account, once again, we're deceived that it's all about a credit score. And then we say, oh, authorized users must be good. None of that is true. A high score is not fundable, guys. Period. A high score is not fundable doesn't mean fundability by itself. Let me restate that. A high score does not mean fundable. We get high, fundable high scores all the time. But they're based on fundamental metrics that FICO is measuring, right? So the authorized users, no bueno. There are better and easier and cheaper ways to, to get your son or your daughter or significant other a fundable profile. We don't care about score, don't care about score. We care about fundability. And if they're not fundable, doesn't matter what score they have. So a myth number three, becoming an authorized user will help you build your credit score. The score doesn't matter. Notice how many of these myths we're actually pulling the rug out from underneath. And the premise of the question, we've been trained wrong on every one of these score doesn't matter. Fundability matters. Whether or not you're fundable, that's what matters. And authorized users do not make you fundable because you don't get to ride on the coattail of somebody else's payment responsibilities.

Only 40% of the good. All the Bad though.

All the bad.

That takes us to number two myth.

All right. Credit approvals are based on credit score. Oh, slide this throughout some of the other ones. But now we get to take it head on, guys. Your score may very well be the third or fourth most important funding metric. There are at least two, if not three, more important funding metrics that they look at. And all those metrics, those top three, if score is four, those top three are based on your borrower profile. The quality, all the things we talked about, quality that counts, how fastidious you are in certain behaviors. What is the past 24 months? The 24 month look back period. All of those things count more than your score. Your score addresses a completely different metric. And so we need you to focus on what makes you fundable. And, and your credit score is not that thing.

It's a big one. That is a big one there. But I'm interested in the number one thing. But before we bring back the number one thing, let's do a quick recap. Number five is what again?

Credit is bad or good. There is good credit and there is bad credit.

Number four, fundability. Yes, all about fundability. What's number four?

Credit scoring is a simple process. Credit scoring is 40 characteristics spread out between 13 different, what they call scorecards or buckets. And you fit into one of those 13 buckets and you're graded by the bucket you're in, not just the 40 characteristics. You get positive points or negative downturn on not positive points, as in score points. You get positive fundability points or negative negative fundability points based on what bucket you're in. Number three, authorized users help you build your score. We don't even care about the score, guys. We don't care about the score. Okay, number two, credit approvals are based on scores.

That takes us to the number one biggest myth when it comes to credit.

Here we go. Number one, the biggest myth you run into. And I'll tell a story, but I have a good credit score. There is no such thing, guys, as a credit score. There are dozens of credit scores. There are mortgage scores. There is a TransUnion, Experian and Equifax mortgage score. There's an auto score for Experian, TransUnion, Equivax, and then there's three versions of software, 5, 4, 2, 8 and 9. For just the auto, for just TransUnion. There are 28 consumer facing scores for all manner of lending decision. And then there's the fake scores, the FICO FACO scores that your bank or financial Institution sends you and say, hey, we're giving you a credit score. Well, yes, it's fico. That's more legit than all the PECO scores out there. But guess what? No lender uses the score that is being given to you by bank of America, American Express. All your banks, they don't use that score. So the number one myth is that you have a credit score. We already talked about whether or not it matters, because it does. It's third or fourth and in line for funding priority, right? But you have dozens of them, guys. Dozens. And unless you know what you're doing, you'll walk into a lender. You don't know what bureau they're pulling, what score they're pulling, and what version of that score they're pulling. You got three strikes against you, and you're thinking you're walking in there. And number one, the faker score of all faker scores. I'm sorry to bring the or be the bearer of bad news. If you are a subscriber to any score that does not have the FICO logo, listen to this. Credit Karma subscribers, those are all fake scores. No lender uses Credit Karma scores. And so you're not using a legitimate score to make a buying decision, whether personal or business. Nobody uses Credit Karma. It's free. Awesome. But it's worthless. Worthless. It's worthless. So you don't have a credit score. And you got to make sure it's the right credit score to make any kind of. To know what you're doing when you walk into this, into a lender, you got to know who they're pulling, what version and what FICO metric they're using.

Good stuff with that one there. Number one there. Now, do you find yourself and your team having to rehash those over and over and over again with clients?

All right, so great. Great question. The whole reason why we have a Funding Hackers boot camp is because I have literally dozens and dozens and dozens of training videos, and people would watch them or not watch them. There's no Q and A. Unless you send your team an email and say, hey, I have a question about this thing we developed and put and made available live. These are not recorded. I do them live. We put together the Funding Hackers Bootcamp so that we could be present with people while they learn all of these things. And without this knowledge, you haven't got a chance out there. You're playing pickup rec center ball against the all stars of the NBA guys, and you're getting crushed out there, and you're getting no's, and you're not getting approved by the very credit instruments you think you qualify for. That's why we developed that entire thing, Scott, was because there is no way you can play rec level ball against the pro. So it's like going. Now I'm switching metaphors. What's the NBA equivalent of spring training for baseball?

They have the summer league or the D league, basically, D league.

So this is you going and getting training from pro level coaches at the Funny Hackers boot camp. It's literally two days of just. Okay, imagine 16 hours, guys, of this level of intensity. It's like, I've been accused of it being like drinking out of a fire hose, but it's relentless because I have so much I want to share. And this is the forum that we develop so that our clients. So since we did this. That was a long answer to a short question. As you know, I'm famous for. Since we instituted the Funny Hackers boot camp, our quality of clients and our client satisfaction and awareness has gone through the roof. Because they're coming out. Anybody who wants coding. You don't have to have coaching. You can do the best you can with what you learned at the boot camp. Right. But coaching clients come in, they're like, I know what I want. This is awesome. I know exactly what to do. I know what I need. Here's my situation. And they blaze forward because now they are educated, at least what game we're playing. Right. That you can't have a major league baseball scorecard up on the wall while you're playing basketball. It doesn't compute. So you've got to know what game you're playing, and you got to know who you're playing against or with on the court. And that's what we do at the boot camp.

That's such a good, Good point. That's such a. Such an important thing. People have to realize you got to be playing the right game. You got to be playing. Yeah. Playing in the same leagues as your competition. If you're in triple A ball, but everybody else is in the major leagues, you're gonna get creamed. All right.

Yep. Totally crushed.

Really crushed there. So you actually had some other bonus ones we didn't get to. We've got some time left. Why don't we talk about one of some of those bonus myths out there?

Yeah. There's a couple other. Let's talk about another myth, which is it's best to pay off your loans early. Okay, so I'll get. I'll give you the quick and dirty on this one, straight out of Fico's mouth told me that there are two ways that you get credit score points on your installment loans. Mortgages, autos, student loans, you know, personal loans, boat loans, payments, etc. Two ways. If it's younger than 24 months and if the balance is above 50%. So after 50%, the points flatline. You're not getting more points for having you proven up that you can pay it down to 50%. Right. And if it's younger than 24 months, they front load the points. You can be a six year loan, but they give you all of the credit score points at 24 months, so. Or 70% of the points. We get into the details at the boot camp, but they front load the points to give you the 70% of the points for that loan in the first 24. So we teach a model, knowing this allows you to refinance, re lease, repurchase, re engage alone, so that you're always maximizing the number of points. So paying it off early. But just so you know, again, straight out of Fico's mouth that they don't even count an installment loan until it's six months old. You have to make at least six months because so many people will buy a car and they're like, oh, pay it off. They don't want that. Messes up their funding metrics. Right. They want to know you paid it for a minimum of six months, but it's best to pay it for at least 24 months before you pay that down.

Yep. What's another extra myth there?

That credit scores in the 7 hundreds are great.

Wait a second, hang on. Credit scores in the 700 is not great.

No. So remember, we're talking about the 40 shades of gray. Right. And a 700. Or let's put it this way, let me put it in the frame of lenders underwriting. It doesn't matter what I believe. It's what lenders lend on. Right. Tier one, the highest, the best rates, the best everything. For an auto loan you have to have a minimum of a 720 minimum. That's the floor to get the best rates on an auto loan. The floor of the best to get the best rates on a mortgage is 740. If the best rate to get up for unsecured credit cards, credit lines, personal or business is 760. So tier one, the best score or that floor level is different. 20, they're 20 point differences based on what you're trying to purchase. Okay, so those Are minimums. We also have underwriting guidelines from all kinds of financial institutions that show the perks and things of having a fundable profile. When I say scores always include. These are profiles that have been developed to be fully fundable. I'm not talking about a score. Don't hear the score. But if you have an 800 plus fundable profile, there are some institutions that have an 840 fundable profile metric that triple A where you get extra bonuses or rebates or other things. Nobody knows how to get them because an 800 score is not an 800 fundable score. Are you following me? You got to have those fundamentals inside of the profile to get these scores. But there are bonuses, bonus rates, bonus, all those things. The higher and higher you go. Just like last night's webinar where we talked about the Ninja sisa, the DB or D C, B, a double A, triple A. Those are in the 830s and 840s on a fundable profile. So that is 7 hundreds are not are the floor. Fundable is in the 8 hundreds, but built on a sound and structurally complete borrower profile.

Wow, that's a good one there. What's another extra myth we've got there?

An extra myth. We're just going to go through all the topics.

What the hell?

Let's see. Oh, you can't have an 800 plus credit score and still have negative accounts. Oh, that's not true. A funder. And when I say hundred, remember here, always here. Fundable profile. An 800 plus fundable profile can have derogatory accounts because these derogatory accounts are do not have as much negative drag as there are positive contributions for this amazing profile. So let me break down the Fico 40, right? I call it Fico 40. Fico 40 would probably just shame me for using that term. I'm like we call. We call it the FICO 40. Only 10 of those 40 characteristics measure bad credit. Only 10. That means there are 30 ways to optimize your profile without even touching a negative account. So imagine optimizing 30 of these things to have just spectacular fundable metrics and you still have a collection, bankruptcy, lien or a judgment. You can be over 800 and still be fundable and still have derogatory accounts.

That's a good one there. Most people don't realize that. I think everything goes with it. And as you said earlier on too, I think people miss it too if people have judgments or previous bad things have happened. Because we had a lot of people 10 years ago. Went through some bad things.

Yeah, right. I did myself. Right. I was leveraged to the hilt following my own advice and so. But fortunately I know how to create a soft landing because I know what lenders are looking for. So I know how to at least manage my relationship with these lenders. So I'm just not thrown out the baby with the bathwater like many people did in the. In 08 and 09.

Yeah, exactly. These have been amazing. 13 points. We talked about 10 and 3 bonuses there. I think people are really loving it. We had some mind blown. Junior's mind is blown. Stephanie says. Not like I have a Victoria's Secrets card anyway. Yeah, exactly. But let's talk about it. You got upcoming Funder Hacker boot camps coming up.

We've got a funding Hackers boot camp on July 27th and 28th that July and it's simulcast. So we're doing it live in Vegas and we're. We're almost full with the in person event participants. We're almost full. So you need to go to. So we're taking all of our registrations manually right now because it's going there. So go to. It's FundingHackers.com is where you would find the information about the ticket. It's a hundred bucks, $97 to attend to two day event. Right. And there's some options there depending on what you. If you want a strategy session with me or whatever. Right. There's a whole bunch of opportunities. Fundinghackers.com if you also want to go direct to sky. Right there. Wave again. Sky. If you'd like sky to respond to you, she will enroll you manually because that's where we're saturated. We're a month in advance. We're already packing them in. So this is really exciting. But you can also watch online the privacy of your own underwear or pajamas. So it is. And that's how. I don't know if he was in his underwear, but that's how Scott watched the Funding Hackers boot camp that he attended.

Was not my underwear. Was not in my underwear. I was in fully clothed, but it was full of content. You talk about the personal credit the first day that Saturday you went through nine to six, nine to five. Going through pulling your scorecards, going through what people are seeing mistakes of. Like I saw online 26 different addresses because I've moved a lot of the 10 years with different properties and things like that.

The eyes of an underwriter. Right. Or you get to see what you look like through the eyes of an Underwriter or the underwriting software. Absolutely.

Well, and it's the big key thing. I always talk people hey. By looking at notes from the eyes of a banker is different than a fix and flipper or a realtor. And I was like, oh, my gosh. I ding, ding, ding. Lights went off. And then on Sunday, you spend a big chunk of time going through the business credit, how to optimize the stuff to get your lines of credit and stuff like that. So we've had students are raving about it. We've had people that are already getting lines of credit in 90 days. They're doing the things. They're surprised. I think everybody's pleasantly surprised of where they're at and realizing now, instead of being in limbo and the unknowing of actually having a solid line, a solid foundation where they're at. Okay, yeah, I've made some mistakes in the past.

Who hasn't?

Everybody.

No. No. Hello. Remember the good news about the funny Hackers boot camp, guys? I stumbled my way through the last 25 years falling on my face and everything. I just didn't take no for an answer. So I built out the personal side of optimization, and then my team are just cracked at being able to coach on all of this. And then I took on what four years ago, took on the business funding marketplace, made that my. And created the funding metrics, and then met with FICO to verify the things that we were doing. I mean, we're actually. This is not a marketing organization. I'm a tech weenie and I am totally committed to translating all this into your funding pocketbook. Right. That's my jolly's come off of doing the math and making it work and knowing how to act in order to trigger positive approvals. Your job is to go out and acquire business lines of credit so you can write a check and do a deal. So personal on first date, but you have to do personal because I'm going to give you a hint. Hear this carefully. FICO told me Dave Smith at FICO, he's this SBA, the Small Business association liaison there said that 80% of all business approvals, business funding approvals for small businesses and entrepreneurs derive from. Come from your personal credit profile. That's what they have to measure. Find out from the bootcamp how this works and all that. But 80% of the decision is based on your personal. So we spend the first day on personal and the second day on shaping your. Your funding entity so that you can get. You can qualify for the highest incredible lines. So it's going to be the 27th to 28th. Go to fundinghackers.com and here's the thing. If we're past the 27th to 28th, go to funnyhackers.com or email us at bootcampreditsense.com and you'll go straight to Skye. And sky will wave one final time. She's actually talking to people right now. And we'll make sure that you get into the next possible boot camp.

So you're going to be in. That's going to be if you want to. Or it's in Vegas, located in Las Vegas. Is going to be live streaming from Vegas.

Yeah, we'll be live streaming from Vegas.

And then the thing is, you have limited number of in person seats, but the people that are watching online just want everybody to know this. It's fully interactive. Since you're using Zoom, you're also using people can watch in from the private Facebook group. I've been able to reattend and watch some of the sessions on there. It's fully interactive. Your staff, Jessica, Cheyenne, Brad, every sky over there does an amazing job of making sure to address any questions or concerns.

Yeah, we're all there. This is not, this is not remote viewing, guys. This is interactive. We stop after every lesson. There's 27, 27 modules that we covered in the two days and throughout every one of them we're taking questions, we're examining. So we're solving to the degree we can without a full deep dive into your situation to all the ways that we can. We give you every answer to every question and we pay as much attention online as anywhere else.

They definitely do. And then where else are you? Because you were in Houston for the funding ability roadshow. Are you going to be in Houston later in August for the Quest Expo though as well?

We're not on the books yet for Quest, but I am going river rafting on the 12th, 13th and 14th of this month with Mark McKellar of the Homevestors crew. Adore those guys and we're their fundability crew for homevesters and every other year we go. So we need to go to the transatlantic. I want to do what you did here in the last month because we're way past professional. We need to go cruise the Atlantic.

Yeah, it's time that you, me, Jason, Aaron, Tom Tracy and a few others get together for cruise instead of at Epcot.

Our upcoming meeting, that's what we go to the Caribbean.

We might have to look something at that. Steph is extremely excited about having the event at Epcot for the podcasting mastermind that we're doing September 30th and October 1st, because the celebrations are the last time they're having Illuminations play there at Epcot before they change it up.

So I haven't seen it, so I can't wait.

You can't wait for it. We're excited to see you guys there for you. So big shout out to everybody watching. Junior, Claudine, Stephanie, Julie, Patton, Mark, Hyland, Teresa. Teresa, Teresa. Thanks for joining. Thanks for sharing. Guys. Get some love out there on our Facebook, family out there. But guys, take the opportunity. Check them out@credence.com or fundability boot Camp. Right.

Funny Hackers boot camp, sorry, fundinghackers.com and credit credence.com is funnyhackers.com is better because it actually drives gives you the information about the want to know about our company. Great, let's go to credit sets. But Funny Hackers gives you all the Q and A's. It gives you. There's literally hundreds of testimonials of people who've been there who are like, wtf? This is insane. Why didn't we know this in high school or college? Well, now you know, so let's do something about it.

Glad to hear that. And you've got some what a fundability Funding Hackers podcast in the works as well, too.

Are you effable? We are going to be starting here before I believe it's going to be like an August, August 15 launch date, but we're starting a podcast in which your beloved Scott Carson is going to be one of our first folks. So the roles will be reversed. But the bottom line is that we're going to be talking about this, a podcast, every single day, five days a week, Monday through Friday. We are going to be we're going to be doing deeper and deeper dives into every one of these situations and have amazing guests who are going to be able to apply what we're talking about there with fundability into notes and real estate and entrepreneurial skills. So be on the lookout for that. Also, if you want to go to fundinghackers.com book, you can reserve my new book Rufable or just F. And we all know that's fundable, right? So that's going to be coming out here as well shortly in editing right now. So if I'm a good writer, it'll take less time. If I suck, it needs a little more time.

It's already been written, just being edited that's a good thing. Good stuff. Well, hey, Merrill, thank you so much. I think, great episode. Lots of great people sharing some things out there. Laura Blunk, Love that slogan. Are youe Affable? Stephanie Goodman says it's about time on the podcast. Good stuff there for you. But anyway, everybody, once again, thank you for listening. Thank you for watching this. Take Merrill up on his offer. Check it out. Fundinghackers.com you wanna go there? Reserve your seat, whether it's in person in Vegas. Yeah, baby. Or online. And then also check out the future dates because you're having these boot camps usually at least once a month.

Once a month. And except where there's a holiday, it's usually in the second to the last or the last week of the month. Yeah, second to the last weekend of the month. Yep.

Good stuff, brother. You guys take care. And once again, everybody, go check it out. Fundinghackers.com credit sense.com the only way to really make some action. You got six months, literally. We're coming to the halfway point of the year. It's up to you to make the second half of the year. And wouldn't you rather be sitting come December, come January, six months further along on your journey to being fundable, to being effable, to being on the having those lines of credit to be able to take advantage of what's going on the market, There are some major economists coming out there saying, hey, we're going to see recession or the United States is already in mid recession right now. It may not be as extreme as it was 10 years ago, but things are already starting to trickle down. So take the advantage to be able to pick up those properties, pick up those notes, be able to lend that money at prime hard money or private money rates to really put the money in your pocket. So go out, take some action, and we'll see everybody at the top. Everybody.

Bye.