Please tell me, do we have a chance?

[getting2work]

Here is our current situation. We have been working on this for the past year and thanks to all of you helpful people here we have been able to raise our scores significantly. My equifax 634 and TU 664- fako experian 648. My husband's equifax 637 TU 644 Ex fako- 632

(We just made some big payments on credit cards to lower our utilization to about 50%-55% each card.  

-Total cc debt about 4K between the two of us.

 - We make annual base pay of 68k

-Good stable jobs over 3+ years for both

Now here comes the ugly stuff- in 2002- I had a discharged bankruptcy

 In 2007 we had a repossesed car that we paid to get back

In 2007 my husband got a judgment for about $2k that have been making payments on

I have about two unpaid collections and two paid.

My husband has about six unpaid collections

We have not had a single late or derogatory in over 12 months.

We have one car payment that we owe about 8k left and pay $400 monthly

 During our rough times I was working and going to school to become an RN. I got a job right out of school and now make great money. We have no other debt and can do FHA or VA. We are looking to buy a house for $126k. We have 3k to put towards it and can most likely come up with another 5k from a family member to pay the judgment upon closing or other debts if needed. Does anyone with knowledge of current state of things think this is a remote possibility for us or should we just wait fot the bad stuff to fall off which will all fall off in the next 1-2 years?

Thanks for your help!!!!!!!

[Anonymous]

well, with limited cash USDA may be your only option.  Most likely all judgements and collections will have to be paid so the 5K will have to go there.  If you go FHA, you will likely need a minimum of 5500 but more likely closer to 10K.  5500 will cover minimum down payment, appraisal, and inspections pretty much, but no more.  With USDA closing costs can be rolled in.  With FHA they can not so you would be looking at probably 5-7K in closing costs depending upon alot of factors and you mar or may not be able to get seller to pay them AND get the appraisal to match the sales price with paid closing factored in.  Remember that sellers never "pay" clsoing costs, they just adjust the price they are willing to agree to in order to show them as paid.

The other issue that may kill this deal is a repo and numeorus lates/etc post BK.  The BK was long enough ago it may not matter, but they are VERY picky about post BK credit history, and from what it seems the overall credit history prior to the last year is pretty spotty.  They may not agree to this.

[DallasLoanGuy]

if accepted by automated underwriting.... unlikely..... you should be fine. even if you arepreapproved thru automated, there are lendrs that will deny it for the post bk derogs. contact a loan officer and talk about your situation.

shouldnt the bk be gone now?

[getting2work]

Thanks so much for your responses! Well, the BK will fall off in 2012 because it's ten years for my state, not sure if it is different in other states. Do you think even for a VA loan they would be as picky as FHA? I can understand considering it looks very irresponsible, which I will admit I have been in the past. We can definitely still come up with additional money from a family member. So in all honesty we will need for the BK to fall off it looks like right? Well, I'm glad we have learned from our mistakes and are on the road to good credit.

[Anonymous]

you probably need for the BK to fall off, or to have 3-4 years (2 as a minimum) of not only no lates, but very solidly established credit.  More than likely though, you are looking at waiting until the BK drops off.

[getting2work]

OK, thanks. I really appreciate your response. This way we have something to keep working towards and it's only two years away, 95% of our bad stuff will have fallen off and we should have 700+ by then without a doubt.