If you have poor or weak credit, a bad credit mortgage product may be something to consider.
Outside of private mortgages, there are institutional mortgage products that are geared towards individuals and families with poor or bad credit.
So what is bad credit?
Typically good credit has a Beacon credit score of 650 or higher, depending on who you’re talking to. I personally consider between 650 and 600 to be fair credit, and anything below 600 would fall into the bad credit category.
There are definitely less options available to you when your credit score dips below 600 due to the fact that many mortgage programs have thresholds for credit score levels.
But there also can be ways to mitigate your credit issues with other factors. For instance, if there are two borrowers, both with strong sources of income, the repayment strength can definitely be a benefit.
Your options can also increase if you have a good story to explain why your credit is low and what you’ve been doing to improve it. For example, many times credit scores will get damaged when people go through a divorce. If the impacted parties have since cleaned up the related debt and have had no negative credit issues in the near term, their chances for getting a reasonable bad credit mortgage rate of interest are going to go up.
The opposite is also true, however. If you are habitually late paying your bills and there is no obvious trend of improvement in credit management, then your options for mortgage financing will likely be few.
Bad credit can also be aided by a solid down payment or equity portion of 20% or higher.
Basically, the more positives you can list in your favor, the greater the possibility to still secure a good rate of interest and mortgage terms despite a low credit score and poor overall credit history.
If you can’t qualify for an institutional mortgage, then private mortgages are always an option. From a cash flow basis, private mortgages can be comparable to a bank mortgage due to the fact that private loans tend to be interest only.
Yes, you won’t likely be paying down the principal with a private mortgage and you may only be able to secure the mortgage for one year before having to pay a renewal fee or locate a new private lender.
But the private lender solution does buy you time and can provide you with the financing you need in the short term until you can improve your credit score and get qualified for a lower cost mortgage with a long term amortization.
Regardless of your situation, the best first step is to give me a call and get a free assessment of your options.