Mortgage lender referred me to credit repair co

[Anonymous]

Hello all,

Ive only just started to clean up old credit to try and boost my scores enough to apply for home mortgage - I am determined to stop renting.  I did the math and I've paid over $300,000 in rent the past 19 years as a single mom.  I believed I couldn't buy so I never tried.  This amount makes me ill.  

so I've tried with a few settlements and I paid those, just waiting to have those report to credit bureaus zero balance to see if my scores go up. 

I've seen mixed info - that the zero balance is better than showing a balance and vice versa.   It shouldn't be this difficult to do the right thing for yourself.  

Another discouraging moment was today when I spent a few minutes on the phone with a lender.  He was recommended by a dear friend who purchased a home through him a few years ago.   He was pretty aggressive about wanting to know my "situation", so I shared the basics - my fico scores, what my debt to income is, my utilization, what my student loan status is and that I'm working on cleaning up collections and charge offs. His response we was fairly condescending and his point was that "consumers make the grave mistake of trying to take care of these things and then suffer more for it, I recommend a credit repair agency and I'll send you their contact information".  

This just doesn't sit well with me.  First, I'm not looking for miracles here.  Just a boost in score so I can even get the attention of mortgage lender - a score they will even entertain - and that will consider any lingering old debt into my DTI rather than require me to pay it to zero.

I got the sense that he isn't the lender for me.  He seemed a bit out of touch with helping people in my credit situation.  Because from everything I've been reading, there are options for me.  

Any tips or advice or words of encouragement welcome.  Because right now, I'm pretty discouraged. 

[satio]

First and foremost, making a conscious decision to right your past wrongs is a GOOD thing and the first step.

It seems you have also already taken care of a settling a few accounts. Yet another GOOD thing.

In most cases it is a marathon not a sprint but building a plan and then executing that plan will get you to where you want to go.

Put the condescending conversation in the category of someone you do not want to do business with furthered by there recommendation that you waste money on a credit repair agency. There is little to none that such companies can do for you that you cannot do you on your own and save money in the process that can be used to pay down past debts.

There is a wealth of knowledge and support within the membership of this forum that will gladly offer their personal experiences, suggestions, and general help to accomplish the desired end result.

As others will recommend, it is best to list out the negative items you have, with whom you have them, providing as much detail as you can including the discretionary income you have to put towards paying off debt, collections, and similar items.

From this a plan of action can be defined and executed.

Welcome to the forum!

[Red1Blue]

I would stay away from Credit Repair companies. There is so much you can learn on this forum and repair your credit by your self.

[Mland-EC]

He is 100%WRONG.

If anything people make the mistake of using these  credit repiar companies  and some people end up coming out worse than they were.
I agree with about 99% of what this says:

https://www.balancepro.org/resources/articles/why-you-should-never-hire-a-credit-repair-company/

In the very very best scenario they can only get you to where you could be if you do everything yourself, but then how would they make their money?

https://time.com/nextadvisor/credit-cards/how-do-credit-repair-companies-work/

[FireMedic1]

When it comes to home loans and all that goes with it. Most lenders if you want a decent rate. They want all past due debts paid. $0 across the board owed. AZEO helps with mortgage scoes also. No lingering debts. The baddie may stay but you paid your debts in full.  Stay far far away from repair companies. All you do is pay them stupid money and they dispute everything on your reports hoping they get removed and you score is trashed each time it updates and the baddie went nowhere. Keep doing what you up to by cleaning up the past and get all debts paid. Then its time to hunt down that loan.

[Anonymous]

I strongly encourage you to trust your intuition and move on to another lender who is not invested in seeing you buy a *credit repair* service. It's a good bet the LO is getting something of value for referrals.

Shopping for a mortgage can be as wretched as job hunting.

Try to keep in mind that there are a lot of loan programs available right now. And plenty of LOs who really *want* you to be approved. It's what they do.

Personally, I always push for a lender who does manual underwriting. Always have. I like knowing that this flexibility is available if I can't stay inside the neat little box, for whatever reasons.

Try not to take anything personally. This is all about whether your data can be stuffed in a tight little box, or will a bit of creativity be necessary. 

When I feel discouraged, I find it helps to step away from it and try to let it go for awhile. Overnight is usually adequate for me. 

Just crack on. There is more likely than not, a lender who can do your deal.