I have been trying to rebuild My credit for several years after destroying it at a young age. It has taken me almost 7 years to claw my way up from a low 400 to a 645,648,675. I applied for a VA homeloan about a month ago fully expecting to be denied as I have been by the same company at least 4 other times. To my surprise I was pre-qualified and then pre-approved for 250k. We had an offrer accpeted on a house 3 days later and the real paperwork begain. I was honest on the requested justifications of my paid off collections and several year old late pays. I expected initial underwriting to ask for alot of stuff but they didnt. I was approved with conditions and the only condition I had to meet was verification of a credit card that I had prior to the loan but it didnt report until later. Very simple and I have no balance on the card. I went into the process thinking i would be denied at any moment and its turning out that years of hard work is finally paying off. I have low DTI and good income. I thought it was going to be impossible to own a home. My new philosopy is that it takes years to build credit and days to destrory it so I have develoed an OCD type personality when it comes to my finances
