When you have poor credit, your list of lenders that will approve you for a home loan can shrink down very small. You want to make sure that you are doing everything in your power to keep your credit rating as high as you can.

Many people will unknowingly hurt their chances of getting approved and make it more difficult for themselves. Here are 3 things you will want to avoid doing if your credit history is already bad.

1. Don't have your credit pulled over and over by different lenders - Many people will, because of their difficulty in getting approved, apply with many different brokers and have the broker pull their credit over and over. Every time your credit is pulled, your score will drop just a few points. In some situations, it can be enough to disqualify you from the loan. The best way to go is to apply with companies online that will give you a pre-approval without pulling your credit, but instead, ask you what your credit is like.

2. Don't Open Too Many New Credit Accounts - If a lender sees that you have a lot of new accounts open it can make them wary to want to lend you money. It can also raise your debt to income ratio, which will make it difficult, if not impossible, to get approved.

3. Don't Be Late On Your Current Payments - Some people feel that since their credit score is already poor, it doesn't make any difference whether or not they make their payments on time now. That is not the case, your credit score improves a little, everytime you make your monthly payments on time.

To view our list of bad credit mortgage lenders online, most of which do not pull your credit with the initial application, visit this page: Recommended Bad Credit Mortgage Lenders Online.

Carrie Reeder is the owner of ABC Loan Guide, an informational website about various types of loans.