Mortgage Anxieties

[JayTee1]

I have conditional pre-approval from a mortgage company for a new construction condo that I will be moving into in about a year from now.  The conditions are simply a few more points  to get my middle mortgage score up to 660.  I'll be doing a USDA loan most likely, and I think 640 is all that's required, but the company I'm working with requires 660.  

I have no new surprises coming, I've been rebuilding for the last two years and then some.  Score simulators show my score going up 15-25 points over the next few months as I get all credit card balances to 0.  I'm not even sure they're taking into account the reduction of accounts that will have balances, but at any rate, I should be okay.

My one big fear is some paid judgments that are no longer appearing on any of my credit reports, but are less than seven years old.  I assume the underwriter will do a public records search, maybe USDA does as well. These are all completely paid judgments, and I know this for a fact.  I will probably go down to the courthouse just to double- and triple-check sometime soon. The most recent one was 2012; the others are mostly from 2009/2010.   All of them are from my current apartment complex, who is very quick to start eviction proceedings if rent is late.  An eviction was never completed, as I paid everything before any drop-dead dates including all court costs, but this happened several times.  (Difficult period in my life, long story, it's over now.)

My understanding is that these will not affect my ability to get a mortgage because they are all paid, but I can't help worrying about it.  Can anyone with experience, maybe even one of the friendly loan officers who frequent these forums, give any reassurance?

I haven't spoken about this with my loan officer yet because I'm chicken, and if there's anything I don't know, I guess I'd rather hear it here first.

[Anonymous]

Do not by any means let all cards report a zero balance. Let one of those cards report a small balance each month. You will actually lose points by not having any revolving debt reporting. Trust me I've done it and lost point. Thankfully I regained all points lost in about a week due to another card reported.

I've had several what they call here in Va 5 day or quit letters placed against me for unpaid rent and received a summons to appear in court. As long as the rent was paid prior to the court date, they dismissed the case. The courts website should be able to tell you whether there is anything owed. But As long as they are paid you should be ok.

[JayTee1]

Thanks.  Yeah, I know - one card should report a 9% balance.  That's fine ... I basically have an entire year to manipulate my credit card balances to exactly that, just paying everything to 0 atm.

Note that my cases were not dismissed.  Judgments were filed, which I just ensured were paid before any eviction could proceed.  The corporation who runs my complex is exactly that -- a large corporation, and their policy is eviction when rent is more than 15 days late, and that happened several times between 2009-2012. 

From everything I've read here and elsewhere, there's no reason paid judgments should present a problem, sounds like at worst I'd have to provide a letter of explanation.  I'll make sure I tell the loan officer over the summer so she has no surprises next year.  

[Anonymous]

We were just in your boat and i can without a doubt tell you that if they are paid, you can contact each credit bureau and upload the satisfaction judgment and they will REMOVE them from your credit history...if you don't have a copy, go online and print them and they will accept them.  I was AMAZED that the credit bureaus reacted so quickly and even though my credit score did not jump, just showing satisfied on my credit report (and / or removed) was HUGE.  Banks / Loan Officers do not want to see them UNPAID...nor collections UNPAID...from April 2016 to June 2016 we paid the judgment and two small collections (medical $81 dollars) and have been lowering our credit card utilization so that we get as close to 30 percent as possible...our credit scores have increased almost 80 to 100 points in the last 50 to 60 days...good luck!

[Anonymous]

I'm in the process of closing on my mortgage and a judgment came up that wasn't on my credit report but the only reason it is an issue right now is because it was UNpaid. There are a couple of judgments that show up on my credit report and the title report didn't even mention those or list them because they are only looking for evidence of unpaid judgments. So as long as you do your own public records search and verify that they are reporting as paid, you'll be fine.

My issue is that mine was most likely paid but never entered as such... so a 10 year old judgment is killing me right now. It's exhausting, so if you have a year to get your ducks in a row definitely do your own public records search and make sure they are reporting correctly. I'm so screwed because I don't have a ton of time to get this updated.

[Sbrooks1]

How can I do a public record search? That is reliable?