So excited, I have to share my story, so, pardon the novel!
Been debating trying to get a new home and have kept in touch with our realtor who helped us buy our first home. Our realtor told us now would be a time to sell as home values in our area have gone up 10/20% in the past few months, so we paid for an appraisal and low and behold, we sitting on over $25K in positive equity. We've outgrown our home 10 fold, but been putting off getting a new one to let the BK age a bit (and work on our scores) and to save up for a down payment - which, now we will use the proceeds from our sale instead of savings!
With many banks in our area abandoning the FHA mortgage (the only one we qualify for), our realtor introduced us to Guaranteed Rate and for us in touch with the VP of lending in our area - who also has a BK, and knew how to handle our situation. One thing I like this that our loan officer pre-underwrote out loan as much as we could (tons of documentation and letters to provide relating to our bankruptcy, but I'll take it!).
After debating whether or not to pre qualify, we bit the bullet this weekend and received the letter today via email that we were approved for up to $229,000 at 3.65%. No points to get that rate - that's what we qualified for! Our app is good for 90 days and we are currently locked in at that rate.
Turns out, our scores were way better than we even thought. My wife's median was 725 and mine was 705 - so, super happy there! Our LO was shocked to see our scores so high - he was expecting us to be around 640/660, but told him he had been vigilant in our rebuild, and he said it definitely showed.
Our house goes live on the market next Friday - so, hope all goes well and we get some offers - but so excited to have this letter saying we qualify.
Just hope Nationstar (current servicer of mortgage) cooperates. I know the FHA is not ideal given the PMI, but I will take it now and refinance it again after a few years, as this house we buy now will be our forever home - and we also have no intention of using the entire amount we qualified for. If all goes as planned, after fees and commissions, we should walk away with 8/9K.
I will keep this thread updated with the progress in case anyone is interested in the process post bankruptcy discharge.
So, to wrap, just want to say thanks to all of you sharing your wisdom and answering questions.
BK Discharge 2/11/14
Currently in the garden.
