We closed WITH Charge offs! It can be done!

[scmami]

Two weeks ago today, we closed! Over the last 10 months or so I have spent countless hours reading MyFico, figuring out what to pay, what to leave, how to GW, how to dispute, just FIXING our messed up situation! We finally closed on our home, thanks to everyone's advice here. A quick snapshot of our current credit:

642 & 647 mid Fico scores. First, the bad, Foreclosure from 2008, an unpaid non recourse 2nd mortgage, 2 paid collections, several settled charge offs, and 4 unpaid charge offs ranging from $700-$3200. Also, another charge off for over $11k that we settled, but were not required to! The good: 2 auto loans, only one late pay 18 mos ago, 2 credit cards, and 2 student loans. No other lates within 4 years. Our DTI is pretty low also.. 26%. I will say that I could not sleep the entire process.. My loan officer was horrible at following up, but he was doing something right apparently! We were prepared to pay everything off if asked, but never required to. If it helps, this was new construction using the builder's preferred lender Academy Mortgage. A lot of prayer and all the support from you great people got us here... THANK YOU ALL!

[basballguy]

congratulations, this is a good example for everyone that thinks they're on the fence.

[asp123]

Doesn't it feel wonderful!?!? So happy for you!!

[scmami]

Thank you! I searched high and low for posts like this while I was waiting for the approval... I really want to give someone the glimmer of hope I was searching for!

[Epcot]

Wow, that's great, Congrats!

[HuntingMama]

Thank you so much for sharing your success.  It is because of posts like yours that I have hope for a house soon.   

DH has 3 unpaid CO's from 4 years ago (total under 12K), and I have a redeemed repo from 5-2009, and he has one from 01-2010.  I am hoping that if I can get the RR's off the reports that we can still get approved with the CO's.  If not, we will just work on PFD's and let time work for us.

The sad part is, the last few years have pushed rentals so high, that a monthly mortgage payment is only 60% of the price to rent the same house...

Congrats, and thanks again for sharing your success!

[scmami]

@HuntingMama, my biggest fear was applying, getting turned down, and wasting an inquiry. The best thing we did was speak with (several) loan officers about our chances given our credit situation. It gave me peace of mind and guidance to hear "yes, this loan should work" or "no way, fix this and come back next year". If we hadn't tried, and went off what we thought we needed to pay off/save up/etc, we STILL wouldn't have applied to this day. Good luck with your journey!

[awdsmama]

Oh wow, CONGRATS!!! 

So happy for you and happy for myself as well to hear this, as I have 2 COs not falling off until 2015 so I thought I may be stuck....sounds like I'm not!

[HuntingMama]

Just remember, thank you for the inspiration!

You share the same thoughts that we are going through right now.  We will also not let that fear stand in our way.  We plan to apply in Jan'13. 

Isn't it sweet when a present comes early?  Merry Christmas!

[scmami]

Good for you guys! This was the only thing we wanted for Christmas and it's better than I could have imagined! Good luck... I'm so glad to have inspired you! Merry Christmas to you too :-)