In January 2003, my scores were in the toilet, ranging from 540 to 590, and too many derogs to count. A little over one year later, my scores range from 685 to 714 and I closed today on my first house, brand new construction. I got a 5 yr ARM at 4.5% interest, no lender fees or points. We did an 80/10/10 and so the lender also gave me a HELOC at 4.5%. I still have one unpaid derog, a medical CO that will be 7 years old in December. I didn't have to pay it to close. The whole time, I kept waiting for the other shoe to drop. I didn't even dare post about it for fear that it wouldn't really happen. But we closed uneventfully today, and I can finally believe it! A huge thanks to everyone on this board, b/c your posts have all helped me in my quest for a home of my own.
Congratulations! Can you share some of the specific things you accomplished in a year in order to raise your scores the way you did?
I mostly did the usual stuff that everyone starts with, such as debt validation and disputing with the CRAs. It helped that most of my derogs were already past SOL and a lot dropped off simply by disputing alone. A goodwill letter to the credit union took care of the auto loan lates (loan was paid off in 2000). Dh took a second job to pay down our cc balances to under 20% utilization. After getting them paid down, I requested limit increases for most of our credit cards. That also made a huge difference in the scores.
Welcome to the American Dream. We closed on our house last March and have almost a year of interest payments to write off on our taxes this year. That plus closing costs, and the new lower taxes for married couples and a child, we're hoping for a nice tax return. We see our guy Friday. Congratulations on your new home.
Huge Congrats. Please update the "CreditNet Testimonials" thread at the top of the board. You guy's can help remind others to do that in case I miss one. If ya want. .
