So I didn't want to post until I knew things were certain. And I looked in to these forums for a lot of guidance and figured I'd write for anyone that might have a similar issue.
I am 23 years old - just graduated in May of 2012 and started my first job in July. I had a goal in mind that I would buy a house with my parents when I get a job (but maybe after a year or so- we all lived in an apartment and I couldn't take it anymore). Fast forward to November, we started the credit approval process to make sure that we qualified for a mortgage. The initial lender ran our credit reports after getting all the documents that a normal mortgage approval would take (not a pre-approval) and denied because they couldn't pull my credit report claiming "I didn't have any credit." I did believe them since I just graduated. I tried another lender that was mentioned by my realtor and he prequalified us for a mortgage but did mention that my credit and my dad's credit report were coming out with the same information.
We both have the same name, different middle initials. Our social security is one number apart. I could see why. MIddle score was 641 (obviously tainted).
In the meantime, in January 2013 we found a house that we liked and they accepted our offer. Closing set for 3/15. Commitment due 3/1. We started the mortgage process. Simultaneously I was told to talk to the credit bureaus to fix the credit report situation.
Equifax: Only had two accounts showing up on my dads report that were mine
Experian; Had 3 accounts that was showing up on my dads report that were mine and one account on mine that was on my dads
Transunion: Had one report for both me and my dad. They literally wrote both social security numbers on top of the report.
Fast forward the 30 day dispute process - the credit reports were finally fixed on 2/27. Time to commitment 2 days. The lender ran our credit reports and we were in trouble again. The accounts I had disputed were coming up with comments saying "Account in dispute by consumer". FHA guidelines do not allow comments in credit reports and this was a start of a new nightmare.
I was told to gather documentatino from creditors that my account was actually not in dispute. Some creditors took 3 business days to fax me a document - some took 7 business days. IN the meantime, I also called the credit bureaus to see if I could do anything. If you ever need to remove comments, these are ways;
Experian; Call the number on your credit report - tell them that you need to remove dispute comments. THey will ask questions specific to the account and will remove them on the phone (takes a few minutes)
Transunion: Call the normal number then talk to the special handlings department (try normal business hours). They can actually speak english and are very helpful in taking comments out.
Equifax: they don't do anything unless the creditor provides them the information.
Then I heard about the process for rapid rescore. You pretty much pay to not go through 30 days of another dispute - they fix everything in 3-5 business days. So thats what I did with Equifax - I had 4 accounts with comments that they took off in about 2 business days.
My credit reports were finally clean on 3/14 - middle score of 692. I had a commitment letter on 3/18 with 3.5% int rate. Closed on 3/21!
Fortunately, closing was only delayed by 6 days but I am pretty sure I lost life years with all the stress that was involved to make sure its not delayed more than that. I also skimmed over a lot of stuff but if you have specific questions - please feel free to ask.
Summary: Initially denied mortgage due to no credit. Figured out my information was getting merged with my dad. Went through different dispute processes to fix credit report. Went through dispute process to remove dispute comments. Closing only delayed 4 business days.
