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I just wanted to say.. I know that there are a lot of people out there with "bad" credit where you cant even get approved for a credit card or car loan.. anything like that. You're probably renting.. and think you're going to die renting. (We did)
We were there.
And believe me.. we live paycheck to paycheck like most middle class people. We didnt think we would EVER own our own home. If anyone is interested on how we did it.. just ask. It DOESNT take a lot of money (or effort!) to clean up your credit. I dont want to type it all out for nobody. But if there is anyone interested. I can let ya know how we did it.
We are building our first home! And just over a year ago we couldnt even get approved for a credit card. I just wanted to say it can be done. So dont give up hope of owning your own home!!!
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Originally Posted by EmberNevill
I just wanted to say.. I know that there are a lot of people out there with "bad" credit where you cant even get approved for a credit card or car loan.. anything like that. You're probably renting.. and think you're going to die renting. (We did)
We were there.
And believe me.. we live paycheck to paycheck like most middle class people. We didnt think we would EVER own our own home. If anyone is interested on how we did it.. just ask. It DOESNT take a lot of money (or effort!) to clean up your credit. I dont want to type it all out for nobody. But if there is anyone interested. I can let ya know how we did it.
We are building our first home! And just over a year ago we couldnt even get approved for a credit card. I just wanted to say it can be done. So dont give up hope of owning your own home!!!
I would love to know how you did it. We make decent money....but don't have good credit and don't have too much for down payment. I would love to hear what you did....I was actually thinking about going to credit counseling to see if they could help us.
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My DD's credit is not good. I would love to know what she can do.
You can email or whatever you have time to do.
Thanks. Ember
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Ember,
Please email me at
I'd appreciate any advice you can give me.
Thanks!
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Hey! Alright.. its really no secret. We had NO idea where to even start! So we talked to a few mortgage people and got some advice from friends who knew people in the lending business. Our first step was to get a SECURED credit card.
A secured credit card is where you pay up front the amount of credit you want. We went with Wells Fargo (recommended to them) since there is no annual fee. The minimum was $300. So we rounded up that money and put it down.. got our secured cc. We wouldnt charge a lot. A tank of gas here and there and just pay it ON time.. and keep the balance LOW! You've got to learn to dicipline yourself with credit cards!
After 4 months they rewarded us and bumped us up $100 more. So we had $400 credit. After 6 months we "graduated" to an unsecured card. They gave us our $300 back and gave us a regular cc with $1000 credit. (building credit!) we pay it on time and keep the balance low. At this point we got some other offers for cc's in the mail. We opened 2 more cc's and pay on time.. keep the balances low.
At this point.. our credit was "fair." We were going to buy a house through DR Horton.. they have an in house credit "repair" service where you pay $145 and they clean up your credit. After you close on a DR Horton house you get your $145 back. But we ended up going with a different builder so we wont get that money back. But they did get our credit up 100 points! We even have a judgement on our credit.. so if we can do it...
The thing is.. most mortgage co. dont look at stuff thats over 2 years old. So make sure you pay on your current stuff ON TIME and dont go over the limit.. keep balances LOW. Thats the KEY. But getting the secured card was the first step. We gave ourselves a year to build our credit.. and its worked.
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Thanks for the tip! It's much appreciated!
-Lucky
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Here's the "repair" program we did. Its under customer care.. and its called the homebuyers club. Like I said, we arent buying a DR Horton home.. but I wouldnt tell them that up front.. clearly they want you to buy one of THEIR homes when you go through this program.. but its not required. And you wont get your money back.. for the fee that they charge.. unless you buy one of their homes.
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From what I understand of that home program, alot of it you can do for yourself for free, it just takes time and patience. As a mortgage specialist I will tell you we DO look at all of your credit history, even over the last 2 years, especially if you are a B-C buyer (meaning you do not have A+ credit, which is rare these days).
There are a couple of other threads here about repairing your credit and what is worth what % of your score...paying your mortgage/rent and car payments on time is the biggest factor (35% of your score) and if you have judgments or foreclosures, yes it lessens with time and your score goes up, but that is true of anything negative on your credit report...I have seen people with bankruptcies 3 years old qualify for an 8% interest rate mortgage!
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Yeahhhh we were too lazy to do it ourselves.. but yeah that can be done! Good tips. A lot of our stuff had or was fixing to fall off our credit (7 years) when we started building.. thankfully. Bad credit stinks.