Hi, My husband and I are in the beginning process of buying a house. My husband works a full time job and I've recently been put on Permanent Disability. When the mortgage company checked my credit report, our scores are pretty good, (Mine, 685, Husbands 774) so that part is okay. Here are the three (3) problems I need help with + one additional question about Write Off's: 1.) Tax Lien Amount: $895 Date Filed: 4/08 ~ Court Type: Recorder of Deeds Date Filed: 04/10/2008 2.) Tax Lien Amount: $862 Date Filed: 4/08 ~ Court Type: Recorder of Deeds Date Filed: 04/10/2008 3.) Judgement Amount: $10,482 Date Filed: 05/08 ~ Court Type: Circuit Court Date Filed: 05/13/2008 BY: CITIBANK SOUTH DAKOTA Q1What can I do to find more information about the Tax Lien, what are they, and what can I do to get them taken care of? What should I watch out for, and can I do it myself? Q2 For the judgement with CitiBank, the original credit card balance was between $4-5,000 - Should I offer to settle with Citibank? How do I get a hold of them? (I'm not going to be letting them know i"m buying a house). What should I know before I call? What should I tell them or not tell them. I know there was a settlement company that kept calling and even tried to take me to court, but they never showed up & it was ruled in my favor. OTHER QUESTIONS~ Q1: Besides the above issues, is it necessary to have the other Charge Off's removed?? Some have just come off, and others will come off in the next couple years. Q2: Is this possible to do yourself? THANK YOU VERY MUCH FOR YOUR HELP IN THESE MATTERS - I WOULD LOVE TO HAVE THESE TAKEN CARE OF ASAP, SO WHATEVER ADVICE YOU CAN GIVE ME, ESPECIALLY FOR THE CITIBANK ONE, I GREATLY APPRECIATE IT!! leslie
If your husbands income is high enough to qualify for the loan, you may want to think about having him apply alone. His FICO score alone will likely get you much better rates and terms on your mortgage. The fact that you have an unpaid judgement and several tax liens will most likely be a big problem based upon my experience dealing with home lenders over the past few years. Anyway, back to your judgement with Citi. Has Citi ever tried to collect the judgement since it was awarded? Also, what kind of funds do have you have set aside to take care of this judgement once and for all? It's also important to remember that paying the judgement isn't going to make it disappear from your credit reports. It will simply be updated as a "paid" or "satisfied" judgement and will continue to hurt your FICO scores until it eventually falls off your credit reports. Regarding the outstanding tax liens, try calling the clerk of court where they were recorded to get more information about what they are and how they ended up on your credit reports. Finally, it's always a good idea to get rid of charge offs if you can. The problem is they can be difficult to remove if the debt has been charged off and sold to a CA. If there's any inaccurate information regarding the charge offs on your credit reports, you can always begin by disputing them through the CRAs and hoping for the best. Some might simply get deleted because the OC doesn't respond to the CRAs' investigation.
