getting a mortgage

fastcheese -

you have a couple of things in your favor - your fico score is decent, and your bankruptcy has been discharged some time ago. Are you current on all your other debts, including the credit cards? I know you said they are maxed out, but are you current on the payments?

You'll want to pull a copy of your credit reports from all three bureas and make sure there are no negative marks on there, or inaccurate information. Things are really tightening up in the mortgage industry since the subprime mess recently, so you'll want to go into this armed with every bit of information you can get.

You should talk to your lender and ask why the lease deed didn't work out, since you were ready to sign for it.

You may speak with a consolidation company and get your credit cards combined under an easy payment plan. This will show a positive effect in front the lenders viewing your credit and show that you are responsible towards paying your debts.

I don't have a lender (yet) it was just a straight lease and last week when I had spoken to the leasing administrator, we were going to sign a 6 month lease. This happened rather suddenly although the owner/landlord did mention that they were evaluating all their properties. I don't think it has anything to do with us, just that they want to sell this particular house. Just our luck. Hopefully, they will not sell it until we can move out into our own. I'm not keen on moving right now but I also don't think I want to buy this house. There are others in our neighborhood that I like better. We'll just have to see if we can qualify. I work part time at Century 21 on weekends and my boss has already given me the contact of a good mortgage guy who works with people with credit challenges. Just keep us in prayers. If we can't buy our own house and don't know how we will be able to afford to move and rent again because we would have to pay 1st/last months rent, etc. and there's no way we have that.

Hi everyone,

I came across the post here. and wanted to put a quick hello and info here on mortgages. I work in the lending industry. Within my network is one real estate agent, one attorney and a CPA and who is also a MORTGAGE LOAN OFFICER.

I am in charge of the sales and marketing, I am a mother of two girls and very much vested in helping others over come this scam of "credit worthiness", that big companies control how we( the consumer) views ourselves by not having credit, when we take on too much or make a wrong(credit) move.

I would like to say in reference to the mortgage industry- that it does matter if you are late with your credit card payments and yes it is very good if you are paying them on time. One thing was not mentioned here... debt to income ratio.

If your credit cards, are MAXXED OUT this counts!
You can pay ontime forever.... and that helps your scores so, in essence that PART of the loan process goes smoothly.

However, along the line of loan processing- your personal information gets submitted to banks and lenders- who have guidelines for approvals- you will meet some(based on what I have read here) but you will be caught up in the D I T ( debt to income)ratio.

How you can make the odds better- is if you pay down some of that maxxed out debt(credit cards). It is a computer who determines the calculations to be correct- so the Loan Officer places the 7-10 pages of information you gave him or her into the database, and it spits out calculations ( the begining of your road to financing) only to tell you- "ummm, nope, they could not be placed in this lenders program because this lender does not accept a high DTI RATIO" which of course places the Loan officer in a jam.

The loan officer has to go digging in the 100's of lender programs and bank programs to find a loan that WORKS FOR YOU. This is usually where the deal falls through.

My best advice is, continue paying ontime, continue babying your creditscore so that it goes higher- (which means more lender program pre quals) and of course, take some of those CC and pay em down.

what did you say, you can't afford to pay them down right now?

Ok, well my secret suggestion is to call your credit card companies and request an increase of your limits.
This helps bring the DTI ratio down for your financing outlook.

I do hope this helps...

and I am happy to help you anytime..

Best,
CyndiW
TULG


:)

Thanks Tulg for that good information. Debt to Income plays an important part in your credit score. I really never realized that until I started working on mine. I paid off some bills and my score actually rose by 80 points. KYSIDE38

Ok to add to the discussion debt to income is not factored into Fico scoring model.Debt to income is what a lender uses to assign risk to your loan.What does count tremendously is utilization.Utilization is figured by taking each account on your credit report and dividing total credit line/loan amount by the current balance. You want shoot for a utilization of 30% or below on all revolving stuff(credit cards) and you want to never be late on anything.With your current score I think you had better check into Fha/Hud guaranteed loan or you will get reamed with a subprime mortgage payment.

Hello to all! I'm writing to ask if anyone knows how being an "authorized user" on revolving charge accounts affects your fico. I have only 2 accounts in my name, and 5 in which I am an auth user on my husband's accounts. His cards are somewhat maxed and don't know if me being an auth user is hurting my scores. We need to pay down the cards b4 we can even think of pre-qualifying for a new house. And also, I don't like the idea of asking for a credit line increase, because that actually hurts your score and doesn't look favorable to potential lenders when your loan shopping. Does that make sense?