Tag Archives: credit

Making Sure the Positives are Included in Your Credit Report

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5-20-creditscoreHere is a one-question True or False exam that every future Highlands first-time home buyer should take:

True or False:
One sure way to build a strong credit report is to pay your bills on time.
(Answer: False)

Particularly for a first-time Highlands home buyer, being able to present a strong credit report can make the difference between being able to afford a quality home that satisfies all your ‘must haves’—or one you just sort of settle for.

It’s about how much you can comfortably afford. The interest rate you will be offered is directly related to your bill-paying history, and a percentage point (or more) can make a big difference in your monthly budget. Because lending institutions charge more or less based upon the degree of risk they believe a loan carries, the stronger your credit report, the “more house” your monthly payment will cover.

Of course, since a string of unbroken records of punctual payments is what lenders look for, you might think that the answer to my one-question True or False exam would be an unqualified ‘True’—but not so fast. There’s a small catch is in the unbroken records that they look for. The word records.

Just paying your bills on time doesn’t build a strong credit report unless there are records of it—and for Highlands first-timers who have been paying rent for years, all those prompt payments could well be missing in action. The surprising reason lies in the nature of our whole credit reporting system.

It’s voluntary.

As the L.A. Times spotlighted last summer, landlords, phone and cable companies, “and many other creditors don’t report your payments” to the big three credit bureaus (Equifax, Experian and TransUnion). They aren’t required to do so. If you’re planning on becoming one of our Highlands first-time home buyers, that might be a big deal—especially since rent payments usually make up the lion’s share of what you buy on credit. But you can do something about it!

Recognizing the difficulty some first timers were having in qualifying for home loans precisely because of such missing data, about five years ago, the credit bureaus teamed up with services like RentTrack that enable tenants to pay their rents online—and get credit for them. TransUnion and Experian also introduced services like “ResidentCredit” and “RentBureau” that encourage property managers to report rent payments for their tenants. That makes sense for landlords, too, because when rent payments are recorded, it enables them to better gauge the creditworthiness of their next batch of applicants.

Making sure your payments are being recorded will put today’s renters ahead of the game when they eventually decide they’re ready for the next step: home ownership. It simplifies the answer to that One-Question True or False credit report question greatly…to a simple “True”!

Low Credit Scores Don’t Always Nix First Time Home Buyers

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5-13-creditThey really ought to teach this stuff in school: real-life, day-to-day economics. Highlands youngsters out on their own for the first time are usually left to trial and error when it comes to mastering things like how to lay out a personal budget or use credit advantageously. Or even how to go about selecting a bank, or opening a checking account…

So when it comes to buying their first Highlands home, it’s very common for newcomers to put off confronting the whole daunting issue. When you’re still new to your career, tackling a purchase involving years’ worth of income channeled through a maze of unfamiliar procedures is easy to put off. But when the delay stretches well past the point in their financial lives when it would be clearly advantageous to own rather than to continue renting, it’s the same thing as throwing hard-earned cash overboard.

Since the asking price for even the most modest Highlands home is a number with multiple zeros on the end, you might assume that common sense indicates it’s out of reach. All the more so if early mistakes handling credit cards or student loan troubles have damaged your credit score. The good news is that potential home buyers with less than outstanding credit can still buy that first home—given some careful financial planning and research on your part.

They really ought to teach this stuff in school! That having been said, here is a broad-brush, very basic rundown of the lay of the land aimed at first time Highlands home buyers:

  • The most important factor banks use to determine your mortgage eligibility is your FICO (Fair Isaac Corporation) credit score. The numbers range from 300 to 850, are based on a number of factors including how much debt you have and your payment history. In general, borrowers will need a credit score of at least 650 to qualify for a conventional home mortgage loan.
  • BUT, it’s not the only factor. Although your credit score tops the list of elements that determine your eligibility for a mortgage, banks will also consider the amount of money you can commit to a down payment. Saving up may delay your first home purchase, and definitely takes discipline…but today, the amount you need is changing. Different lending institutions have different rules for determining eligibility, and some offer-
  • Non-conventional loans. Today, first-time home buyers with relatively low credit scores can often secure such loans. You should research Highlands banks to find those currently offering non-conventional loans to borrowers with qualifying credit histories. You should also consider a Federal Housing Authority (FHA) loan, which eases credit requirements. For example, you might qualify for an FHA loan with a credit score as low as 580 with a down payment of just 3.5%!
  • You can also use money from an IRA for your down payment. In other circumstances, withdrawing money from your IRA before age 59 ½ means paying a 10% penalty, but that rule doesn’t apply when you use your IRA to purchase a first home!Bottom line: a low credit score doesn’t necessarily mean you can’t buy your first Highlands home. I’m here not only to help you find a home, but to help clarify the options that make possible that dream of owning your first home. Call me anytime!

For Sapphire Boomerang Buyers, a Window Opens

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2-20-boomerangThere is a seven-year window for some past Sapphire homeowners—and it’s one that’s opening, not closing. The ‘window’ in question is the one that could activate Sapphire “Boomerang Buyers”—which would come as good news for the local home sales.

Some background about Sapphire Boomerang Buyers. It’s a term coined in the wake of the subprime mortgage fiasco, describing those burned by the housing crisis. They were, on the whole, Baby Boomers and GenXers who were caught up in the Great Recession. For many who became enmeshed in the effects of the nasty confluence of the cliff-dive of the subprime mortgage bond market and collapse of residential valuations that swept the nation, foreclosures or short sales became, literally, offers they couldn’t refuse. Not only did the bitter aftertaste leave many with a spoiled appetite for homeownership, but the damage done to the credit ratings of millions made that a moot point: they had fallen off the scale when it came to qualifying for a new mortgage.

But that was then; this is now. It’s a now that, in RealtyTrac Newsroom’s breathless phraseology, “the first wave of…homeowners who lost their home to foreclosure or short sale during the foreclosure crisis are now past the seven year window they conservatively need to repair their credit and qualify to buy a new home.”

Soon, more and more Boomerang Buyers in Sapphire will be in the clear, if they choose to be; and they are only the first wave. “Nearly 7.3 million potential boomerang buyers nationwide will be in a position to buy again from a credit repair perspective over the next eight years,” says Newsroom. Bankrate, the mortgage and financial advice website, sees the group as particularly well-qualified. They quote a broker in North Carolina to that effect: “If you’ve been through a foreclosure, you’ve already been a homeowner…you know the process. You’ve been through hell sometime in the last seven years…”

That word ‘sometime’ is apt, because the seven year period has been anything but uniform. Guidelines for that “waiting period” have sometimes been three years for FHA qualifiers, or even shorter for portfolio loans that lenders keep on their own books. But whether it’s three or seven years, the clock usually starts ticking only when a foreclosure has been completed. But according to FICO, although a foreclosure remains on a credit report for seven years, “the negative impact will fade as time passes.”

For potential Sapphire Boomerang Buyers still waiting for a foreclosure to disappear altogether from their credit reports, there are other routes that can lead to a homeownership reboot. For more on buying or selling, I’m always pleased to sit down and discuss some of the great opportunities in our current market!

FICO this, FICO that: Highlands Home Loan Background Info

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1-14-ficoWhen anyone is in the early stages of finding a Highlands house to buy, unless they are planning to pay for it with cash, a large part of what eventually happens will be determined by the home loan they secure. Both the size of the home loan and its interest rate are negotiable, but in almost all cases, the applicant’s part of the “negotiation” consists of comparing offers from various Highlands home loan providers.

So unless you are The Donald (or can supply your own wheelbarrow full of cash), Highlands’s mortgage companies will have a large say about what they think you can afford for your next home. Even though they represent totally different entities, their decisions tend to be awfully similar. The reason for that is that they all work from similar information: your assets, your current ability to generate cash— and your FICO score.

If you have ever suspected there is some kind of mysterious secret formula involved in coming up with that last, your suspicion was valid. But your FICO score isn’t a total mystery—some parts of their formula have been (however grudgingly) made public. Since the system is so pervasive, it’s good to know as much about it as you can.

To begin with “FICO” is just a company name. Back in the 50s, Bill Fair and Earl Isaac got together and engineered a credit scoring system, and so Fair Isaac COmpany was in business. Once Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac began to use them, it became a very good business. Now all the major consumer reporting agencies (Experian, Equifax, TransUnion—even PRBC and Innovis) use them. As to how they come up with their all-important scores, FICO has published the exact formula (sort of):

  • 35%: Payment history: If you have or don’t have derogatory information, like bankruptcies, liens, judgments, settlements, charge offs, repossessions, foreclosures, or late payments. It makes up more than a third of your score.
  • 30%: Amounts owed: Your current state of indebtedness.
  • 15% Length of credit history: This one is why borrowing anything early on in your consuming career is a good idea. A long history makes you more trustworthy.
  • 10% New credit: Have you recently been opening credit accounts all over the place? That’s probably not a nifty idea.
  • 10%: Types of credit used: A variety of the kind of borrowing you have done also makes you more trustworthy: revolving credit cards, car loans, home loans and lines of credit all broaden your appeal (at least the way FICO sees things).

That sounds reassuringly cut-and-dried—but before you relax, remember that ‘sort of’ we began with? As one analyst writes candidly about the Types of credit used category: “It carries the same weight as the New credit category…but in reality, the two categories aren’t quite equal.” If you had been under the impression that 10% = 10%, you now know otherwise. Also, FICO itself states that the percentages it makes public “are for the general population. For particular groups…the relative importance of these categories may be different.” In other words, the percentages are hard and fast, unless you are in a particular group. If you ask what is considered ‘a particular group,’ it gets mind-numbingly confusing. Sort of like the sound of FICO clearing its corporate throat and changing the subject…

Nonetheless, knowing just this much about what’s behind a Highlands home loan originator’s decision will stand you in good stead when it comes to securing your next home. Another canny move: give me a call right from the start!