A home is a big purchase.
For this reason, many people who were able to purchase the house of their dreams did so with the help of a mortgage loan. Needless to say, it is not that easy to buy a house with bad credit. Many lenders want customers with good to excellent credit and if you have poor rating, you will be considered a high risk borrower.
If it’s possible to wait until your credit score improves, then you will be in a much better position to negotiate with lenders and you can qualify for the best loan deals.
On the other hand, if you really need to get a home loan at this time, there are some steps you can do to increase your chances of getting approved.
Improve your credit score.
Check your personal credit report. See to it that it contains no errors or unauthorized charges which can cause your credit score to drop even more. Exercise your consumer right to dispute errors to raise your score. Also, keep in mind that negative remarks should be removed from your file after seven years. If you still have records of tax liens or bankruptcy that is older than 7 years, you should request the credit bureaus to erase that from your file.
Keep up with your current payments. Reduce your credit card usage especially if you own more than one card. As much as possible, you do not want your credit card charges to exceed 20% of your credit limit.
Do not submit multiple applications.
Do not submit multiple applications to different lenders at once just to see who will grant approval. Too many inquiries in your file can cause your credit score to drop even more. Seeing too many inquiries in your report may send a negative impression to a potential lender.
Prepare for down payment.
If you have bad credit, you may have to submit a higher down payment. This doesn’t mean that you should put up with unreasonable rates. Even if you have bad credit, you should try to negotiate for a reasonable rate if you can pay a higher down payment.
Check out FHA loans.
The FHA Government Loan Program is created especially for borrowers who cannot qualify for standard loans. In fact, you can apply for an FHA loan even if you have a record of bankruptcy as long as you have been discharged for 2 years. FHA loans have less stringent credit requirements and lower interest rates compared to commercial bad credit loans.
