Friday, September 13, 2013

Credit Repair: How Long Will It Be Before I Can Buy A House Or Car Again? Not As Long As You Think

Credit Repair issues are on the minds of a very large segment of our population. I have many people who come to me for advice about buying a house. I am a Real Estate Broker; Home Builder; and a Home Loan Mortgage Broker and I work everyday in my business helping with credit repair; stopping home foreclosures; and negotiating Home Loan Modifications.

I know that this all seems very complicated and contradictory to people, but really there are just too many so called "facts" being thrown about. First of all, most people have not damaged their credit as much as they think. I find that many people believe that any bad credit hurts their credit for 7 years. This is not true. Credit Reporting remains on your credit for 7 years that's true. But very little of it is hurting your credit to any significant degree after 2 or 3 years. I have often had prospective home buyers tell me that they probably can't buy a house because they had a bankruptcy 5 years ago or so.

The system is much more forgiving than that. You are eligible to buy a house at about 2 years after a bankruptcy. The computer programs are not that concerned that you had trouble 2 years ago. The Credit Score System cares much more about whether you have paid your bills on time since the bankruptcy. Have you fixed your problems by filing bankruptcy? Foreclosure is much the same.

There are some Lenders who have rules that you cannot approve for a loan for many years after a bankruptcy. For some, 2 years might be fine. Lenders are like people. There are many Banks and Lenders loaning money. The each have a different personality. If they are troubled and tight for money to lend, then they have tighter rules. The lending rules are standardized, but each bank can decide what risk they are willing to take and what the terms are of the loans they offer.

This is true about the Required Credit Score to buy a home. A friend of mine, who works in our industry, told me yesterday that his Lender said that the standard Credit Score for buying a home right now is 680. The two national Lenders that I work with will do loans where the Buyer has a 600 credit score. How can this be? His Lender wants too much profit and they will not take as much risk. Not that the 600 score is risky. Just that a 600 score is riskier than a 700 score.

There is no real standardization of terms. Especially in this crummy economy. So, your credit may be better than you think, but what do you do if your Credit Score is 575 and you need 600? Are you just out of luck? Nope not true.

This is when we look at Credit Repair as the answer. You have a right to dispute your Credit Reporting. There are so many errors in the national Credit Reporting Agencies credit reports that everyone probably has one error, or more. You can dispute your credit yourself. Or, you can hire a credit repair company. But, you must know that it is not hard and it does not take more than 60 days to do about all you can do about past problems. There are credit repair companies that will charge you thousands of dollars up front and $80 or $100 per month for a year. This is too much money. You can do EVERY bit of cleaning that is easy within 60 days. If you aren't high enough after that, you will need to begin credit building. This just means pay your bills every month on time and your credit will rise more.

But, you can do a lot of good with Credit Repair first. Contact companies that don't charge monthly. You must ask for references and then call them. A reliable company will be proud to give you contact information for their customers with whom they have had success. Ask what they will do and how long it will take. Then, if your hire them hold them to it.








Danny Hammond is a seasoned real estate professional with over 35 years of experience. He is a Real Estate Broker; Home Builder; and Mortgage Lender. He is currently a partner in a company that specializes in Credit Repair, Stopping Foreclosures, and negotiating Home Loan Modifications that lower home owner payments and brings them current with very little money out of pocket. The company is Total Financial Solutions.

You can visit their website at: mortgagepaymentmodifications.com mortgagepaymentmodifications.com Or Email:

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