For those who rebuilt, then bought - at what point did you decide to buy?

[Anonymous]

Have been mulling this over....

Original plan was to spend 2012 & 2013 rebuilding/rebounding from some financial troubles. Then, use 2014 to save up some cash, and go for a mortgage in early 2015.

This is still not a bad plan. But, the repair is going faster than I anticipated. I've also managed to accumulate more savings than I anticipated. House prices in the neighborhood I want are pretty reasonable, and I don't know that they still will be a couple of years down the road. Market in this area is definitely heating up. I'm in a lease until the Spring, anyway. But it occurs to me that maybe focusing on building a good credit card portfolio (I was without credit at all for the last decade) might be less helpful to my overall financial picture than if I was to get my housing costs down. Which I might be able to do if I buy, since the mortgage could end up cheaper than what I'm currently renting for.

I won't go for a house unless it would be the same or less cost than this apt. (Even including increased utilitiies, etc.) But I'm now in a position where I can either maybe start looking at gaining some credit cards between now and June, or I can save myself the HPs and plan on speaking with a lender in the Spring.

At what point did y'all decide to buy?

[tooleman694]

As soon as I got my scores over 680 I started the process of buying a new home.

[Asailorshort]

I haven't brought yet but I think I'm in a similar situation to yours.  What are your current FICO scores and how much/what percentage do you have saved?  Also does your report contain at least 3 positive TL's with no negatives in the last 12-24 months?  do you have a low DTI?

 For me personally, I don't want to purchase until my mid-score is over 700 (or at least my EQ is very close.  I'm just guesstimating that my EX score is close to my current EQ of 682) And I have 20% dp saved.  My DTI is already extremely low.  BUT I think my plan is super-conservative.  I've seen many, many people on here buy with a 640ish mid score and 3.5% dp saved (plus maybe a bit extra for reserves).

[Anonymous]

Well I have been rebuilding credit for about the past year.  I had a verizon collection of $481 two medicals one for $179 and $234.  The verizon collection was fraud so I disputed that still in process of being removed from all three and I had the two collections removed in february when I first started looking at housing.  I actually built it by adding myself as a AU on my spouses cards.  On citi that had a limit of 4000 and now two plus years of perfect history.  Then we opened a gecrb ashley furniture account for 3500 and that was me as a primary user.  I have a new car that I got october of last year with my spouse as cosigner who had really good credit but I had pretty bad credit so go 11.75% interest rate which im hoping to refinance soon.  In may I opened a sears account and macys account with 300 and 400 dollar limits first credit solely in my name!!!!!!!!!!  July I opened best buy card with 300 dollar limit.  We have been looking for about a year at housing and once our scores were 640 and we both have had promotions within the last year so we made contract on a house we love which in the middle of the possible I got a pay increase.  Anyway we have conditional approval as of monday hoping to get clear to close tmrw.  All of this at the age of 21 and 22.  If your credit is above 640 can be as low as 620 but makes it easier if your above 640.  If your dti is really decent front and back ours was 11/35 and that was them includiing a student loan that is deferred because my spouse doesn't graduate for about another 2 years and the loan is for 4500.  Make sure no negatives on report makes for less writing of loes.  12 months on time payment 2 years on job and clean bank statements with enough funds for closing down payment and a couple months mortgage.  Be prepared to provide personal information

[Anonymous]

Also about a year ago my scores were in the 400 to 500 range now im 660ish 642 was my mid when my lender pulled for approval spouses 650

[webhopper]

For comfort; try to be at 690 for conventional and 660 for Fha... you may lose points once they start pulling your credit so be prepared for that. You score will drop after the 45 day window passes

[tooleman694]

640 if you go FHA, 680 for conventional.

Check your FHA loan limits. If you will be over the limit you need to go conventional.

I like Webhoppers advice, give yourself some room.

[webhopper]

Thanks tooleman... when I started the process... my middle score was 694. By closing time I squeaked in with exactly a 680.

Mortgage inquiries were the cause of the drop

[tooleman694]

I was in the 700s, after the rapid rescore I was under 680 for my middle score. sux.

[Anonymous]

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@Asailorshort wrote:

I haven't brought yet but I think I'm in a similar situation to yours.  What are your current FICO scores and how much/what percentage do you have saved?  Also does your report contain at least 3 positive TL's with no negatives in the last 12-24 months?  do you have a low DTI?

 For me personally, I don't want to purchase until my mid-score is over 700 (or at least my EQ is very close.  I'm just guesstimating that my EX score is close to my current EQ of 682) And I have 20% dp saved.  My DTI is already extremely low.  BUT I think my plan is super-conservative.  I've seen many, many people on here buy with a 640ish mid score and 3.5% dp saved (plus maybe a bit extra for reserves)

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Scores are mid-600's but am still in rehab on one outstanding student loan. That's done in Feb. After tax return is in, will have about 10%. I will have 7 positive tradelines, but nothing fancy - five SL's, all in good shape and two CC's. Not prime and toy limits, but hey. It's a start. No debt other than the SL's. I'm kind of thinking that I'm not all that interested in building a CC portfolio, so maybe I should not app for anything until Spring. Maybe I'll at least have a chat with a lender and see what they think...