Hello All,
New subscriber here and so far have been very impressed with the insight shared by everyone on the forums. My wife and I are in a situation that many others have been in (I'm sure) and are currently looking for advice. In the fall of 2018/spring of 2019 we fell behind on monthly payments (CC's, a personnal loan payemtns or two, etc.) due to a flood in our home (caused by a joint left in place by the builder). As such, we ended up having to come out of pocket with a not small amount of funds to maintain a clean home to live in, until insurance funds could be distributed by our mortgage company (escrow account). Unfortunately, the damage was done, missed payments reported and accounts sent into collections.
We did the best we could but not having the credit education we have now, we did not contact the creditor's for many months. As such, most original creditors wrote off/closed our accounts (charge off reported for each month the debt was not paid). My wife and I sold our home during the summer and have paid all outstanding debts (less our vehicles) directly with the collection agencies.
We are now debt-free (less our cars) and are looking to start a fresh in a new home. As we would like to build, we need our FICO 2,4, & 5 above a 680 to qualify for the construction to perm loan. We pay all credit cards to a zero balance each month and only spend what is in our budget, however to date (4 months since all accounts were paid off) we have seen little movement on our mortgage scores.
Any advice on the most expeditious way to improve our scores (above a 680) is greatly appreciated. We have been monitoring our reports each month via MyFICO and have disputed all items we have found that are inaccurate.
The question is, how long will we have to wait until our scores improve to a point where we can move forward with our new home?
Thanks again and looking forward to your thoughts.
Jonathan
Starting Score: 469