Qualify for a mortgage?

[Anonymous]

I am currently working in Iraq as a DOD contactor.  I do not have a place of my own in the states, no rental payments.  I have payment stubs for 27 months that show I made on avg. $8000.00 per month. I paid for school for my 2 kids with this money. I now have $30000.00 in an online account. I keep maybe $2000 in my checking account. I have an IRS tax lien for $16026 and a state tax lien from NJ for $5818 on my CR. The liens are from 1995. The tax liens were covered under a Chapter 7, according to my lawyer. It was discharged 15 OCT 2003. The IRS is the reason I files BK in the first place. I have 5 accounts that show late payment in 08/07which is when I come over to Iraq. I have 2 collections that I have to fight, both under $300 each. I have 4 CC that I do not have a balance on, I use just one of them for online stuff. I pay a auto loan which is $350 a month. My CR shows that I have 9 revolving accounts, think 5 of them are the ex-wife’s. I was a AU on these accounts. I pulled my 3 scores and they are EQ-657 TU-648 EP-600, the first 2 are from this site and EP is from there site. I want to look at houses in the $100k range with at least $30k down. So do I stand a chance of getting a mortgage?  I hope I provided enough info to help the gurus on here.  This will be my first home purchase.

[Anonymous]

With 20% down, you could get a mortgage easy.  The real issues are getting mortgages that require insurance from FHA or PMI..  With 20% down, that is not an issue.

[rockymtngrl]

I assume your wanting to buy this house when you get back to the states to be your primary residence? If so, then the only question might be your job. Are you W-2 or 1099? Either way the income you use to qualify would be after all deductions. Other question would be are you still going to be with this same employer once your back in the states and would your income stay the same?

[Anonymous]

I will be with employer until next AUG, then maybe go up to Afgan to work some. Right now I don't know, that is why I am looking for a house now. I just wanted to make sure before I contacted a bank about the loan. I filled out the page here to have a mortgage company contact me, but it has been 3 weeks and no reply from them. But Thank you for the replies. Yeah I almost forgot, I get a W2 every year and get the $87600 income tax free.

V/R

redfish642

[rockymtngrl]

I see. Thats kind of complicated. So it sounds like you are planning on staying over there but want to go ahead and buy a house in the states now? What would you be doing with the house while you are over there? If its not going to be your primary residence it really changes everything. You will probably have to go conventional if its not going to be your primary residence (I think to be your premary residence you would have to move in within 60 days of purchase). I think you have to have a mid score of 680 for conventional, with a 20% down payment. The other issue might be your job ending in a few months and being unsure what will happen after that. Hopefully one of the brokers will be by later today and can shed some more light on your situation.

[Anonymous]

It will be my primary residence, as soon as I close I will buy the furniture and my son will move in, he rents his own place now. I will be coming home on R&R from time to time thought out the year. The Job thing, I can stay with this company as long I wish to, just have not decided if I want to go to Afagn. I can stay with this company in the states with the same base pa. In Iraq I get my base pay plus an uplift that equals 75% of my base pay for being in a war zone. Sorry for the confusion on the subject.

V/R

redfish

[ShanetheMortgageMan]

With 30% down you could buy this as a non-owner occupied home and then the situation with you being overseas working for the DOD would be a complete non-issue.  However even with the situation as you laid out, as long as you can demonstrate that the home would be your primary residence when you return to the states permanently I think underwriters would be OK with you buying as your primary residence as well.  FHA requires that you occupy the home within 60 days, VA (if you are eligible) requires that you occupy the home within "a reasonable period of time" (which is defined as 60 days, but up to 12 months can be OK), your spouse (if you have one) can satisfy that requirement but no other family member may.  VA also can make exceptions based on unusual circumstances as well, so if that is the type of loan you are leaning towards I'd contact the local VA RLC and go over your situation with them.  Otherwise with conventional (conforming) financing, while it also does require you to occupy the home within a certain amount of time (usually 60 days, as well) lenders have more leniency since it doesn't need to be guaranteed or insured by a government agency, so that is the type of loan program I think you'd have most flexibility on.