Decided it is time to jump back into the real estate market but found that your credit score has declined just like home values? Don’t despair- there are a number of quick ways to increase your credit score fast -- in thirty days or less!

First and foremost, it is critical to pay down your credit cards. Your goal should be to have total revolving debt at less than 25% of your total credit limit. Each separate credit card account should be less than 25% of the credit limit for that individual account as well. Even if you pay off the balance in full each month, you need still need to ensure that you do not utilize your maximum credit limit, as balances are averaged over the billing cycle.

Some other quick ways to increase your FICO score involve a review of your credit report and confirming the accuracy of the information provided. Since the ratio of available credit to credit used is so critical to your credit score, you will want to ensure that credit bureaus are correctly reporting your credit limits. If you have any accounts where a credit limit is not reported, these can hurt your score, as often the current balance will simply be reported as the maximum allowable limit. If you find errors, you can simply contact the creditor to update the records or dispute the information directly with the credit reporting agency.

If you have negative information on your credit report, there are some methods worth consideration to get quick results. If you have a great track record but simply had one late or missed payment, you may be able to contact the creditor and request removal using a goodwill letter. If you have collections on your report that are relatively small, $500 or less, you can most likely get a collection agency to agree to remove this negative from your report (in exchange for paying it off, of course). This “pay for delete” form of settling your debts is particularly effective on medical collections. Be sure not to send them the money until you get the agreement in writing! Finally, check your report for easy errors that you can fix relatively quickly, such as credit-related items that exceed the 7-year time limit, negatives that you can conclusively prove are not yours, or accounts that are still listed as unpaid that were included in a bankruptcy.