Leasing car in a week, but may purchase home soon

[Anonymous]

A good deal has come by on a new car lease. However, there is a chance I may purchase a home in the near future.

Credit score is currently ~720. Salary is ~14k a month, so I'm not worried about pushing by debt-to-income ratio with both lease payment and mortgage when it comes time for mortgage. Other payments include another $400 a month car payment, and thats it. CCs are all paid off. No loans of any sort other than those mentioned.

My question is, if the automobile manufacturer's finance company pulls my credit ONCE, and I go ahead and go for the lease

1. Will this affect my credit score?

2. Will going ahead with the lease (~$500/month) affect my chances of getting a good interest rate on a ~350k mortgage compared to if I hadn't gone ahead with the car lease.

3. Anything I could/should do to prevent any adverse affects to my credit score (and thus my potential interest rate on the mortgage

All advice appreciated. Thanks!

[Anonymous]

Inquiries do affect your credit score, so you will take a probably minimal hit for the credit inquiry from whoever does your financing.  If you do all of your car inquiries (shopping around for best deal, etc.) within two weeks, then they will list the inquiries out separately on your credit report, but only count it as one inquiry.  I think the usual advice is to limit your inquiries in the 6 months to one year range before you apply for a mortgage. 

Sounds like you're generally in good shape for a mortgage, you might check on the mortgage board for more info about your second question.  The score is very good.  You're not worried about DTI, but that's definitely something they'll take a look at.  I would check with some real estate professionals--mortgage broker or loan officer--to find out specifically about your situation.  Once you're in the application stage, they generally say not to apply for anything else while the deal is pending.

Not sure how far out you are from the "near future," but my thought is you have to weigh the deal against the probably-minimal ding you'll take from the inquiry, probably-minimal ding from new account, and the particulars of your DTI, which may ding and may not ding.