“Fix Your Credit” Is Lazy Advice
“Fix your credit.”
It’s the most common piece of advice given to people who struggle to qualify for a mortgage—and one of the least helpful.
It sounds practical. It feels responsible. And in some cases, it’s well-intentioned. But as a blanket response to why capable people are locked out of homeownership, it’s lazy advice that ignores how the system actually works.
Because for many buyers, credit isn’t the real problem.
Why the Advice Persists
Credit scores are easy to point to. They’re visible, numeric, and familiar. When a loan is denied, it’s comforting—for both lenders and borrowers—to believe the solution is simply raising a score.
“Fix your credit” suggests a clear path forward:
- Pay down balances
- Dispute errors
- Wait six to twelve months
- Try again
That narrative gives the impression that the system is fair, neutral, and merit-based—and that exclusion is temporary if you just follow the rules.
But that story only holds if credit scores are actually measuring what mortgage decisions claim to care about.
Often, they’re not.
Credit Isn’t the Same as Ability
A credit score is a backward-looking snapshot. It reflects how someone interacted with debt products in the past—not whether they can sustain a housing payment over time.
Many people who are told to “fix their credit” already demonstrate the behaviors that predict responsible homeownership:
- Years of on-time rent payments
- Stable or growing income
- Cash reserves
- Conservative spending habits
What they lack isn’t responsibility. It’s conformity.
They don’t fit a narrow profile shaped by legacy underwriting rules—rules that prioritize uniformity and automation over context.
The Hidden Assumption Behind “Fix Your Credit”
When someone is told to fix their credit, there’s an unspoken assumption that the system is neutral and the borrower is deficient.
That assumption is wrong.
Credit scores were designed to predict short-term delinquency across broad populations. They were not designed to:
- Evaluate long-term affordability
- Account for variable or non-traditional income
- Incorporate housing payment history meaningfully
- Adjust for temporary life events
Using them as the primary gatekeeper to homeownership is less about accuracy and more about convenience.
“Fix your credit” often really means: wait until you fit the model better.
Why Waiting Often Doesn’t Help
Even when buyers follow the advice, outcomes don’t always change.
Scores can improve while eligibility doesn’t. Minor fluctuations may not cross rigid thresholds. Other factors—like income variability, self-employment, or loan structure—continue to trigger denials.
And in the meantime, buyers:
- Keep paying rent
- Miss opportunities as prices rise
- Lose years of equity building
Telling someone to wait without addressing the structural reason they’re excluded isn’t guidance—it’s deferral.
When Credit Repair Does Make Sense
There are situations where improving credit is genuinely useful:
- Resolving errors or inaccuracies
- Recovering from recent financial disruption
- Reducing high-interest revolving debt
But that’s different from treating credit repair as a universal prerequisite for ownership.
Improving a score should be one tool among many—not the sole path forward.
The Real Question That Should Be Asked
Instead of asking, “How can this person improve their credit score?” a better question is:
“Can this household realistically afford this home over time?”
That question leads to different answers—and different decisions.
It shifts focus to:
- Real earning power across income sources
- Monthly cash flow
- Housing payment history
- Reserves and buffers
- Long-term sustainability
Those factors don’t show up cleanly in a three-digit number. But they matter far more for ownership outcomes.
Why the System Defaults to Lazy Advice
If “fix your credit” is so incomplete, why does it remain the default response?
Because it’s cheap.
It requires no structural change, no new underwriting frameworks, and no shift in incentives. It keeps responsibility on the borrower while leaving the system untouched.
Real solutions are harder. They require rethinking how risk is evaluated and who the system is designed to serve.
What a Better Approach Looks Like
A better approach doesn’t eliminate standards—it applies them honestly.
It recognizes that credit scores are informative but incomplete. It evaluates people as they are, not as a model expects them to be. And it acknowledges that sustainable homeownership is about behavior over time, not perfection in the past.
That’s the gap Doorly was built to address.
Moving Beyond Lazy Advice
“Fix your credit” isn’t wrong—it’s just insufficient.
For too long, it’s been used as a substitute for deeper thinking about who gets access to homeownership and why. As work becomes more dynamic and income more complex, the gap between real financial life and rigid underwriting will only grow.
Closing that gap requires better questions, better tools, and better design.
Because capable buyers don’t need platitudes.
They need systems that actually see them.