Thursday, December 18, 2008

Can You Get a Mortgage Loan with Bad Credit?

By David Hebert

Do you know your credit score? If you know the number and it isn't that high, you may be asking yourself if you will still qualify for a mortgage. It won't be easy to get a mortgage with bad credit, but it still should be possible.

A lot of things determine whether or not you can get a mortgage rate, and credit score is one of the biggest ones. If you are sure that your credit is bad, you should probably start taking steps to repair it. Things like paying your bills on time, not having too many credit cards, not having to many people check your credit and so on are going to affect your credit, so be aware of this and start to improve your credit. Good credit is going to net you a better mortgage rate, but it is still possible to get a mortgage with bad credit.

If there is no hope to your credit, you can probably kiss a mortgage goodbye. A lot of banks won't take the risk, especially now that the economy has taken a downturn. If you do have really bad credit and absolutely need a mortgage, you might want to consider getting someone to cosign for you. This is going to take a lot of trust on their part, because they are risking their credit to help you.

If your credit has been improving for the last six months because you have been doing everything right (paying your bills on time, reducing your debt and so on) you might want to see whether you can get a mortgage now. Now is the time to go from bank to bank and see which one is going to offer you the best deal possible. You still might not be able to get the lowest interest mortgage, but if you continue to improve your credit score you can always remortgage in a couple of years to a better rate.

If your credit is bad, you are probably going to pay a higher interest rate, and your mortgage company might even insist that you get mortgage insurance if you don't have enough money for the down payment. This is going to add a considerable cost to your mortgage, so you are going to want to make sure that you budget this in and know how much you're going to be mailing off to the bank every month so that you don't find yourself in a financial pinch. Basically, if you default on this mortgage you are going to find getting a mortgage in the future virtually impossible to do.

If you have filed for bankruptcy, do you think that you will be able to get a mortgage now? Don't get your hopes up, because the only thing that you can do is to shop around. If the bank offers you a mortgage with an interest rate that is significantly higher than what it should be, you should probably decline.

The moral of the story is you should make sure your credit stays good and that will save you a lot of headaches of getting a mortgage with bad credit. - 16928

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