Hi all,
Lots of great information and knowledge on this board so I wanted to see if I could pull a little more info from some of you with mortgage experience.
Here is the situation: In December of 2009 FHA/C1ti approved a short sale that eventually closed in January of 2010 on a small condo I owned before getting married. As I am in Florida and this was my primary residence there was no recourse for the negative balance ($80k) after the sale. The short sale closed successfully although I had no late payments. As of now, my three credit reports show the mortgage as "paid as agreed" with no payments since March of 2010 (figure that) and no reports to my credit since early 2010. Each of my credit reports show a balance on the mortgage when they last reported, but nothing new has posted since early 2010.
My scores Ex 707(Plus) EQ 668(FICO) TU 700(FICO) with two open car loans total 880/mo. I have credit card lines totalling $47k and balances of $17k. I have no lates reporting to my credit, a student loan with a balance under $1k and about 10-years of credit history.
My wife has very little on her credit reports; three credit cards combine to lines of $22k with $4k balance, 1 paid car loan, and when I last pulled her Fico she was 740/73? - creditkarma shows her at 762. I owned the condo before getting married and her name is not on any of the documents.
She is a stay at home mom with our 2 and a half old daughter. I have income of $75k (verifiable) and monthly extra income from contracts/consulting of $950-2300/mo.
We are interested in buying a house and wonder what our possibilities are. I have some cash in the bank and could pay down balances on credit cards (probably near zero by year-end). If I do this I will not have much left for a down payment. With my past short sale would I be able to return to FHA for a mortgage? If not yet, how soon? Or, am I better off going traditional mortgage, keeping the cc balances in place (most is @ 0-1.8%), and working to put 20% down?
We will likely buy a home in the $200-240,000 range if that will matter.
Would definitely appreciate any advice or suggestions you may have for us!
Thanks
