Real estate question

Thank you sir

no biggie, your lender may get an alert and your loan officer just needs a simple explanation, happens alot

Is there any credit involved? Do they charge you upfront and you effectively pay back a loan with your installments?

If there is no "credit" involved in your transaction, then the inqiry should not be a hard hit.

The only other alternative might be if the inquiry also opens you up to other departments in that business which may provide future credit (i.e. some insurance companies are also banks and even though an insurance application isn't a hard hit, their privacy policy discloses cross-sell opportunities that may involve your credit so they do a hard pull up front to avoid having to pay for 2 reports.