Carrie Reeder asked:




After a bankruptcy, you can get approved for a home loan. Just be
prepared to pay several points above conventional rates. However, if you
have a large down payment or wait two years, your mortgage rates will
improve to near conventional rates.

Dealing With A Past Bankruptcy On Your Credit Report

A bankruptcy will stay on your credit report for seven to ten years.
However, it stops affecting your credit significantly after two years. So
if you have established other good credit habits, you can qualify for
market rates in no time.

But before you shrug off your bankruptcy, check your credit report to
be sure that all accounts that were part of your bankruptcy are
discharged. It’s not uncommon for paperwork to not get processed, leaving a
negative mark on your report.

Other Helpful Factors

A down payment of 20% is expected for conventional rates with a
traditional loan. Anything less and you will have to either pay a point or
more at closing or additional loan interest. The same is true with sub
prime loans. However, larger down payments decrease your rates.

Significant cash reserves and a large income can also offset your
credit risk. The amount you want to borrow is also a factor. The lower your
debt to income ratio, the better score you will get.

It’s also important to remember that not all lenders will treat your
application the same. So it’s important to shop around for the right
mortgage with the right terms.

Shopping Mortgage Lenders

If it has been less than two years after your bankruptcy or you know
you have poor credit, start shopping with a sub prime lender. They deal
primarily with people who have adverse credit. They can also offer you a
lot more options than a traditional lender.

For instance, sub prime lenders have easier terms to qualify for a zero
down mortgage. You can also opt for a future refinance with your
mortgage when your credit score improves.

Remember that you have many financing options for a mortgage, even with
a bankruptcy in your past.

Judy

Kristin Abouelata – Home Loans asked:


In the mid 1990’s, the mortgage industry saw the credit score and its predictive power to assess a borrower’s ability to repay a mortgage step into the limelight as one of the most indicative factors for loan approval. After conducting statistical test after statistical test, Fannie, Freddie and Ginnie, the 3 big lending institutions, mandated that the credit score should be used in conjunction with manual underwriting to assess loan approval. Not too long after, automated underwriting systems (AUS) were developed that expedited and streamlined the underwriting process even further for lenders. A loan officer today simply inputs a borrower’s key information into the preferred underwriting automatic engine, such as his/her credit score, income, amount being borrowed, cash reserves, employment and housing history, and the value of the property. A response is returned by the underwriting engine recommending approval or denial for the loan.

If your loan receives a denial from an AUS, the buck doesn’t necessarily stop there. Life happens to people, and oftentimes it’s going to take a real live person understanding the nuances of a file to make an underwriting decision. That’s when your lender may suggest submitting your file to underwriting for a manual review. After all, not everything in life can be automatic, right?

A perfect scenario for a manually underwritten file would be someone who has no credit scores. No credit scores? Yes, it is possible. I’ve had customers who, being old school and always having paid for everything in cash, had never established traditional credit lines that reported to credit reporting bureaus. In a case such as this one, I had to submit non-traditional lines of credit to underwriting, something a machine can’t assess. This means I had my customer bring in bills he had paid on time for the past year to create a credit history. Typical ones used are car insurance, utility bills, cell phone bills and cable bills. You can expect to have to provide 3-4 different trade lines if you haven’t established a traditional credit history and score.

“The most typical reason we see a file submitted to us for manual underwriting is for either no credit score or an error reported on a credit report,” reflects Patricia Haynes, onsite Government Underwriter at Mortgage Investors Group. “For instance a judgement that doesn’t really belong to the borrower. Maybe it’s really Dad’s judgement reflected on the son’s report because Junior and Dad have the same name. That’s when I can overwrite an AUS decision because I have the documentation to support my decision to do so in front of me.”

Another very common reason to submit a loan for a manual underwrite is when your customer’s credit score is below 620 and gets an AUS denial. If this is the case with your loan, be prepared to provide more than average documentation about your credit history, as well as written explanations as to why your credit score has suffered recently. Maybe two years ago you had a financial meltdown due to a medical illness, but in the last twelve months, you can prove you are back on your game and have been repaying debt. However, your credit scores haven’t exactly caught up with your actions. An underwriter is going to piece together the different aspects of your file and see if it makes sense. Your home lender should be able to review your file and guide you as to what documentation an underwriter will want from you to grant you loan approval.

Naturally, if your credit score is really low and you have very little explanation for your state of credit affairs other than you failed to pay your bills on time, don’t hold your breath for loan approval. An underwriter can see through smoke and mirrors. After looking at files as long as they have, they can basically sniff out a loan that has merit from the ones that are too risky.

So, even as our world gets more and more automated every day, it’s nice to know that you can’t replace genuine common sense, even in the mortgage industry. And it’s nice to know that you can plead your case for credit worthiness to a real live human being.



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