First, I'm SO glad I finally got around to checking these boards. WOW, what a fountain of information. The more I go through the more excited I'm getting about the whole process of taking real control of my finances -- something that I didn't do and actually avoided for a long time. Credit isn't perfect but it's a lot better than it used to be-- not that I have any pre-screw up numbers to go on because of that whole avoiding thing but at one time, as a single person with a decent job, I had about $20K in credit card bills, plus a car payment, vet bills and a personal loan from my dad. MULTIPLE late payments are of course still haunting me. I even flunked out of credit counselling for late payments! Had my act together for the last 2+ years and it shows. At least I think so.
So here I am... my house that I purchased in 2003 is up for sale. I have been told that our buyer, one who had credit issues herself, will be reassessed by the mortgage broker on Tuesday to see if she can qualify to make the purchase. We have a verbal agreement on the purchase details. She's evidently done a ton of things to help her credit score come up from the low 500s. In the meantime, we have found a place we want to purchase, but due to my DTI *HAVE* to sell the current house before we can purchase anything. This is a place that I never thought I'd be able to afford -- not only in terms of payments although that's a big one, but also in terms of just dealing with it. It's an 18 acre farm! The house isn't much bigger than we have now -- 125 sq ft more room, but is a 3bed/2bath where we're dealing with 2 bed/1 bath now (and for 5 people plus 2 dogs and a cat that gets crowded quick!). Plans are to eventually redo the barns and/or demo and rebuild in order to have horses. As soon as our buyer is under a valid contract (I guess we couldn't hold her to anything right now due to her previous credit so we didn't have anything in writing), we can start negotiations on the farm. I'm going to be hitting my 401K a little in order to get out from under the current house as I'm actually selling it at a slight loss from what I owe but with the price of the farm, I won't have any trouble making it up as home/land values go back up. We're all excited and counting the days. Not sure I can make it til Tuesday!! Although it might actually be harder to not have a nervous breakdown when my current house goes through an inspection (being an 1898 built house that has had obvious additions and changes over the years, it shoudl be ok, but that old = nervous).
12/09 - EQ 683, TU 696, however hubby's EQ is 599 - guess what we're working on next!
1/4/10 - EQ 700!
5/7/10 - Midline score = 712! Hubby's EQ is now 613 :-)
I just found these boards also and it was just a relief to post a post simply to vent some frustrations we've had in our process. . . still a couple of weeks away from closing, but all is finally looking perfect!