Some people do not realize how late payments work on their mortgage. Your mortgage is legally due on the 1st of each month except on a home equity line, which may be due at almost any time of the month. I am focused in this blog post more on regular mortgages. It is customary for banks to offer a 15 day grace period Read the rest of this entry »
Is your credit active enough? I have a client who did not have active enough credit, and got a loan declined. Fortunately there were enough other lenders that saw the situation differently, but the topic merits discussion. Here are the important details: Read the rest of this entry »
The Grinch, which in this story is Fannie Mae, just stole Christmas. I must admit, that is dramatic, and not literally true. But they did potentially just steal your mortgage.
Fannie Mae’s current rules allow an underwriter to exclude revolving debt (i.e. credit card debt) from the debt-to-income (DTI) ratio if there are ten or fewer payments remaining. Fannie Mae will now require all revolving debts to be included in the DTI ratio regardless of Read the rest of this entry »
There are a variety of foreclosure alternatives available to homeowners. And there are also a variety of ways that these alternatives impact your credit. Read the rest of this entry »
I have written quite a bit about credit scores this year. Your credit scores are critical in getting a mortgage. Below is a summary on credit.
Minimum credit scores are currently: Read the rest of this entry »
Contrary to popular belief, having a mortgage lender, mortgage broker, bank or credit union pull your credit report does NOT hurt your credit score. I would like to catch the person that started this myth, to give him a piece of my mind. If I had one dollar for every person that said,“ please tell me what I can qualify for but do not pull my credit because I know it hurts my credit score”, I would Read the rest of this entry »
Fannie Mae has some new guidelines going into effect as of June 1st 2010 in regards to credit reports. Fannie Mae wants to make sure that borrowers' overall credit situations have not changed between the time of application and settlement, and to make sure that there are no new undisclosed debts. So, be aware that lenders are going to start Read the rest of this entry »
Don't let your credit score fall down. There are many current homeowners who can afford their mortgage, but are upset that their home is not worth what it once was. These people are called "strategic defaulters". But walking away from a mortgage, especially one you can afford, is a bad idea. Read the rest of this entry »
It seems all banks and all types of loans today require a credit score to get a mortgage. I know of only one bank that still allows what is called "an alternative credit history", it seems 99% of all banks now mandate the need for a credit score. But there are a few people, very few, who don't use credit, have not gotten a credit card, and pay cash or write checks for everything. I find these people to be younger, or much older. The younger people still have not considered building a credit history, and some much older people just never used credit or were never comfortable with it. Read the rest of this entry »
A low credit score can be caused by several factors. For details on ‘bad credit’, go to my web site (www.GetLoans.com) and hit the 'Tools' button and then click on the ‘Loan Programs’ button. See the data under “Credit Score Information” to see in great detail how credit scores are determined. And see the data under “Credit Repair” to see if it is possible to fix your poor credit record.
The way they rate your credit used to be as simple as ‘have you made any late payments or not’. Now they go much deeper and look at things such as:
Length of credit history Read the rest of this entry »