I currently have 21 tradelines on my report ranging from '05 to the newest one of Dec. '12. Of those 21 accounts 14 have a paid as agreed status. 5 accounts have a status of 120+ days past due and 2 are showing as bad debt/collection. The 7 negatives all have zero balance. The reason there are more than what I previously stated is because of the accounts being transferred or sold.
I have heard that Midland basically laughs at a GW attempt so I have not tried that. I have considered trying it with everything else though.
Starting Score: 620
Like I said, if you aren't worried about the inquiry and a ding to your score, you can try for a preapproval. I recommend that you find a lender that does Desktop Underwriting as they actually put all of your information in the system such as W2's, paystubs, etc. and the LO often will give you a heads up as to what conditions the UW will most likely want satisfied. Banks like Wells Fargo don't do this until you are in underwriting which means you can get far down into the process before you know if you are approved or not. If things don't go through, look into NACA if you don't want to wait to get your report cleaned up. But keep in mind, a NACA loan typically takes 6 months for an approval and sometimes longer. If you do decide to apply for FHA, let us know how it goes. I recommend speaking to a Broker instead of a LO through a bank given your credit situation as they can find a lender that has requirements best tailored to your situation. Good luck! :-)
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I am currently working with a LO that told me I first needed to work on getting into some sort of payment agreement with the outstanding Midland accounts. He said because they were accounts in dispute with a balance showing I would not be able to get approved. I'm guessing next thing he is going to tell me is that I need to get the account in dispute notation taken off those even though they are now showing a zero balance. I believe he is thinking he can get me into an FHA loan. I will definitely keep in mind what you said about completing the requirements and make sure whatever those are I have a more than fair chance of resolving. i will also ask about the underwriting process and see if he knows anything about desktop underwriting.
As far as my current progress on my credit repair attempts, I recently spoke with one of my collection creditors and they told me that will never delete an account unless there is a dispute and they feel it was an error on their part. Apparently I need to change my approach. Instead of being candid and admitting to my mistake and trying to get a GW drop I need to dispute it and try my best to make it look like it was their fault. I had a little more success with another creditor and I feel that I am close to getting them to remove from the bureaus.
I haven't even tried anything with Midland since my initial dispute. I realize that if I try and dispute again this will make it harder and longer in the underwriting process. Decisions, decisons...Do I keep trying to clean up my report now or leave everything alone and try to get approved? I haven't completely given up hope that I can get some more things dropped from my report.
I 'm not familiar with the NACA loan so I will have to research that as well. I guess I will just have to wait and see what he says and see what makes sense. I'm looknig to finance a max of 150k.