Welcome. Don't worry, your report is not even that bad. I would HIGHLY recommend pulling your EQ and TU FICOS on this site, as the scores you were given are FAKOs and are not at all accurate. You need to know what your FICO is, as this is the score lenders use. Fakos are for educational purposes only.
The first thing you should do is send some heart felt, short but sweet goodwill letters to the mortgage company and the auto loan company and try to get those lates off of there. It might take a few attempts, but be persisitant. Send those letters again and again, and send them to important people within the company. If you search goodwill letters on this site, you will find some you can tweak and use.
Call the collections agencies and offer pay for deletions. If you owe $300, tell them you will pay $150 this week via certified money order if they will remove all past and future reporting from the bureaus. Make sure you get this in writing if they agree. If they won't talk half, try 60% etc, until you can reach an agreement. Always insist on deletion and don't give in.
From here on out, do NOT miss any payments. Get yourself another 2 cards- never more than 3. IF your FICOS are 600+, I would app for a Walmart card and a Capital one card once you have 6 months reporting on that secured card. If you just got the secured card recently, go ahead and add another secured, and then app for a Walmart card after 6 months. (You get free FICO scores when you have a Walmart card, and its a great rebuilder with good credit limit increases).
You are going to need two years of no late payments, so if you can't get them removed, it is important to go forward without getting any more. Set your goal month for apping for a new home, make sure that it is a date that makes it so you have no recent lates, and start working. This forum is the best place to start. I personally have seen 100+ point gains in just 6 months, You can do this! As someone said to me a few months ago- Lets get this house!!
Starting Score: EQ 416 TU 498 EX 468 Lender Fico's July 2012
Hello and welcome to the forums. First off, I'd like to say you've already started down the right path, we just need to get you to the finish line. Don't worry about the Inqs, they only figure into your scores for the first year, and really not that much. It's the baddies that we need to get off your CR.
You need to formulate a plan of attack. Take all the baddies and make a file on each one. Keep all your records in order, so if there's a screw up, it won't be on your part and you can use that to your advantage.
Anything that's paid, get a GW out for. If it's not paid, you will send a PFD if you have the funds for it. At some point, you may just have to pay/settle and then go the GW route.
Now break down your baddies and set goals for each one. I like to keep them seperated so as not to get overwhelmed by the whole process.
As far as Discover goes, I had an account like that too. After many GWs, they actually removed all but 1 30 day late on TU, so persistence with them seemed to pay off.
July 2013 score: EQ FICO 819, TU08 778, EX "806 lender pull 07/26/2013
Goal Score: All Scores 760+, Newest goal 800+
Take the myFICO Fitness Challenge
Current scores after adding $81K in CLs and 2 new cars since July 2013
EQ:809 TU 777 EX 790 Now it's just garden time!
June 2017 update: All scores over 820, just pure gardening now.
Encore is most likely Midland Funding. I just wanted to thro that out there. You can try for a PFD (pay for delete) pretty much the same thing you've been doing. Start at 25% and work from there. Now, from what I understand, this might not work (but it never hurts to try) and you might have to pay and then GW them for a delete (they tend to be more receptive to a GW).
Starting Score: 588Since that Discover one is so large, I would snowball this. Start with the smallest debt, and make that one your first goal. Get a PFD letter out, and make sure you have the money to pay it. Attack them in order from least $ to most $, saving discover for last. I would not contact them anymore for the time being. It takes time, but if you put your mind to it, you will get through this and be able to buy a house. I also forgot to ask, if you are selling your current home, what are you going to have for a downpayment? If you have a large down, many banks will finance you with poor credit. Also, you could use proceeds from the sale of the home to put Discover to rest. If you do FHA, they will over look Discover as long as you have a payment agreement in place, so I would keep that in mind.
Your DOFD is always the same, they cannot change the date that the debt went past due for the first time. So, when the 7.5 years is up (from the date it first went delinquent) the debt cannot be reported. It can, however, still be collected. I would also find out the SOL for your state while you are doing this. If you live somewhere that is low, you may be out of that soon, which makes it a little easier to bargain.