How will a recent late affect a mortgage approval 6 months from now?

[RESSECUP]

December was a horrible month, there was a death in my family and i ended up being late on an installment payment.  My plan was to clean up my credit to purchase a home.  Will that recent late possibly disqualify me?  I will be a first time buyer looking to go the FHA route. 

[cartwrna]

I believe rule of thumb is no lates within the past 12 months, but I believe they can overlook it an underwriters discretion. Was it late enough to be reported to your credit report? It has to be 30 days late to actually be reported as late.

[RESSECUP]

Yes it was a 30 day late reported.  

[cartwrna]

If you have compensating factors, or a reasonable underwriter it may not be an issue with a good LOE. Especially if it is just a one time isolated event. You'll never know until you talk with a lender, I would do just that before putting an application though. All lenders have different guidelines

[RESSECUP]

thank you

[Anonymous]

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@RESSECUP wrote:

Yes it was a 30 day late reported.  

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you may also want to try talking to the creditor to see if they would remove that late payment, given your extenuating circumstances they may accept a GW removal