Major blow drops all my scores by 28 points, I feel doomed.

[Anonymous]

Hello all, need some advice pertaining to my situation here.

As little as 4 years ago I had pretty good credit at around 680 average. But that changed towards the end of 2013.

After I graduated from college in 2013 I took on a residency which required me to relocate from Houston to Austin and halfway through the residency the program had internal issues and they had to terminate my tenure. That left me with no financial income and unable to work because I had no license to practice pharmacy yet.

The apartment complex I was leading at would not let me out of my lease unless I paid the amount in full so I had no choice but to let it default and move back to my home city. While preparing for my boards I picked up odd jobs but still could not afford to pay many bills so most of my credit cards defaulted as well.

I made the best of things and slowly managed to bring my scores from 560 to about 630.

Then the major floods happened in Houston 2 months back an both my vehicle and wife's vehicle were flooded and considered a total loss. I was forced to purchase a new vehicle myself and leased a vehicle for my wife.

First my wife's vehicle was reported as paid off by insurance and as a cosigner and dropped my scores by 14 points on average. Then today my vehicle showed up on my reports and each dropped by about 28 points each.

Now my equifax score is back down to 588, transunion to 605, and experian is 589. And this has left me so discouraged after being so close to reaching 650 as little as 4 months ago.

My wife's scores all average between 660 through 670.

My income is $108,000.00 yearly and my wife's is $60,000.00.
My school loan debt is close to $150,00.00 and pay $1,200.00 per month while my wife's school loan debt is $30,000.00.

My car debt is 14,000.00 and pay $430.00 monthly while my wife is in a lease for $500.00 monthly.

Can our combined income and her good scores help us get approved for a FHA score even though my scores are abismal once again or are we stuck living with my Inlaws forever?

Any information or advice is extremely appreciated.

[Anonymous]

Are those your fico 08 scores or are those your mortgage scores. If they are your 08, then you need to pull both of your mortgage scores to see what those look like. They will use the lowest middle score between the two of you.

[Appleman]

Life can suck sometimes! Sorry to hear about the challenges you have had the last few years.

I would head to the re-building forums and see what advice they have for getting your scores up.

My suggestion would be for both of you to get your 3B reports here and see what your mortgage scores are for each of you. Find a mortgage broker in Texas and see what they say. They want to help you as that way they can get paid by helping you into a mortgage. I believe there are a few brokers that read these forums and would likely offer some good advice to you as well.

I wish you both luck, it is nice you have in-laws who are helping you out.

[Anonymous]

So I looked up at the mortgage scores for myself and my wife.

me: equifax 554, transunion 565, experian 613

wife: equifax 636, transunion 655, experian 625

Our fico 8.

me: equifax 588, transunion 634, experian 589

wife: equifax 645, transunion 676, experian 625

I hope someone who deals in mortgages who can help sees this post and help with suggestions. for now all can do is keep doing what I've been doing the past few years keep trying to fix my scores. But our time is short and with two toddlers now a home is needed very soon.