Temporarily damaged credit, need lender

Temporarily damaged credit, need lender

Investor · Newton, MA · Member since 2009 · 69 posts · 19 votes

I'm in the process of buying a triplex, where I'd be living in one of the units. Purchase price of $1.2 mil, I have W-2 + rental income sufficient for the loan, and I'm hoping to do 20% down, but may be able to do 25% (I would prefer not to). This would typically be a conventional jumbo loan, but while applying for one I noticed a problem I was not aware of earlier. Basically, last year I refinanced one of my existing properties, and a few months later I switched payments to autopay. I found out 2 months later that their autopay system was not actually charging my account (something they neglected to mention was that their autopay does not kick in until 2 months after, and in hindsight I should have double-checked it rather than trusting their autopay). I immediately made the account current, but they still dinged me with a 60-day delinquency and my credit score dropped from over 800 to 683.

I'm trying to get it fixed (was not aware that this got reported until I got the house under agreement, since earlier phone conversation this year said otherwise). I'm having a tough time getting their servicing department to look into this and reading more similar cases online I'm realizing that lenders are reluctant to issue corrections and I may be stuck with this problem. In the meantime, my credit score has only recovered to 699 so far (this happened only 4 months ago) and I need to close on this purchase I have under agreement. It seems like once your score falls below 700, most lenders don't want to touch you with a 10-foot pole, even if you had a spotless credit beforehand and all your other assets are in order. I also did not realize that a single item can hurt the credit this bad. 

I'm guessing I'm not the first or last person in this situation. Is there a lender that offers conventional (or similar) loans to people in my situation? I'm ok with higher interest rate as long as it's within reason, or a different type of loan I can refinance out of once my credit is repaired (either via dispute or by waiting for my credit to build itself back up). Seller has a loan too, I've asked them if they'd consider seller financing, they're still thinking about it.

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  • Malcomb StapelPro Member
    Investor · Topeka, KS · Member since 2020 · 669 posts · 488 votes
    4y

    So the bank that you refinanced with, that had the autopay issue, isn't willing to loan on it? 

    Also, it's no guarantee, but if your that close to the 700 number, you could try Experian Boost. It might push you over the 700 in a short amount of time. 

  • Investor · Newton, MA · Member since 2009 · 69 posts · 19 votes
    4y

    They said they would be if they could attach a letter from the other department to the file, but there is some bureaucracy going on between different departments. This seems to be a larger bank, that has multiple departments scattered across the US with quite a bit of red tape. While the loan intake department is understanding, they've asked that I at least provide a letter explaining the situation from the servicing department. The servicing department claims they have no authority to do so, and keeps creating work orders for yet another department that seems to be unresponsive.

    How does Experian Boost work? I checked out their website, but don't understand how they can magically modify credit. Also, it seems like they mainly go by the FICO score, My FICO score is already at 732 but from what I understand, lenders use the lower score which came up as 699 on the last credit pull (last month).

  • Lender · Annapolis, MD · Member since 2022 · 154 posts · 70 votes
    4y

    @Alex T. With all mitigating factors being considered and given your score and how the rest of your criteria (experience, reserves, etc), you may still be able to qualify for 80% LTV. Sorry this happened!

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