ForumsFinancing Tips

Yes, setting a budget is a very good thing to do! But I do not have 6 months to a year to reach a goal like that. Plus I have only a couple of months to get out of the house I am renting. And I keep getting told that I do not have enough open credit accounts to be able to qualify for a mortgage ever. So I am basically looking for something to help re-establish my credit and have a down payment for a house. Thank you for your advice, If it's ment to be, I will or won't find a way

I have just started to do some research on FHA, My problem is that my current credit score falls right below 500. Which is not good, I actually talked to someone from Countrywide today and she told me that I needed to open a credit card or get a loan and then try again in 6 months to year that way I would have more that one credit account (My Auto loan) open. Using google is a great I idea thank you!

If you don't have $3000 to put down, perhaps you need to get your finances in order before committing to a mortgage. People tend to forget that bad credit is bad for a reason. Or to put it another way, if you have not honored your debt committments in the past, why should any lender believe that you'd handle even a $3000 loan any more responsibly?

Flake - Sorry if you saw my post as negative or insulting. The reality is that if someone has bad credit and no money, they should not be purchasing a home. There's a world of difference between you qualifying for a small credit card and qualifying for a residential mortgage. Perhaps if people were more responsible when it came to borrowing, we'd not be in the real estate mess that we find ourselves in today. Maybe if there were more "mean" guys like me talking sense into people, we wouldn't have foreclosures left and right. What would you prefer: me telling it like it is (ie this person should not be buying a house) OR me sugar coating it and having that same person on the street in 6 months because they took on more debt than they could handle? Perhaps its YOU who is doing the dis-service here Ms. Flake by encouraging an unqualified buyer to make a purchase.

I spend my days foreclosing on properties and negotiating with people who borrowed money that had no business borrowing that money. If you saw how ugly it gets on the back end, you might understand why I'm so adamate that people wake up to their fiscal realities. If someone had simply told them that they were unqualified to borrow, they might still have their home or their life savings. Instead, they have lost everything.

As far as suggestiong a co-signer for the loan, I can't tell you how many times I've seen that scenario blow up to everyones detriment. It usually goes something like this....Bob has bad credit so he gets dear old dad to co-sign. Since Leopards never change their spots, Bob quickly finds an excuse not to make his monthy payment. The bank calls dear old dad to let him know that A) his credit is being hurt because payments are being missed and B) he is responsible for the payments just as much as Bob. Dear old dad goes ballistic on the banker because they are ruining his credit and because it's "not even his loan".