if Mobile / Manufactured Home Finance: What if you had to File for Bankruptcy in the last 3 years?

I have had to tell people that do have very good credit scores that because their bankruptcy has not been discharged long enough there is no way for me to get them qualified for a manufactured home loan. Depending on the loan most banks want to see that your bankruptcy has been discharged for at least 3 full years and some as long as 5 years. Most banks will also want to see that the borrower has re-established at least two years of stable credit use from the time that the bankruptcy was discharged.

If you are either purchasing or refinancing a Manufactured Homes on Leased Land or in Parks most lenders will require that the Bankruptcy has been discharged for at least 4 years and the borrower will need to have re-established at least two years of stable credit use from the time that the bankruptcy was discharged

For Manufactured Homes that are on their Own Land the general rule of thumb is that the bankruptcy will need to be discharged for 3 full years from the date that the bankruptcy was discharged before a borrower will qualify for either a purchase loan or a refinance loan.

Please note that these are just general rules of thumb. Each borrower will have a different situation and may still qualify for financing even if their bankruptcy has not been discharged for very long.

The one product that is available for Manufactured home financing even if your bankruptcy is only 1 day old is a Reverse Mortgage. With a Reverse Mortgage the lender does not care about your income or your credit they are mainly looking at your age and the equity that you have in your home. Please see the other article that I posted to learn more about Reverse Mortgages

Know what is on your credit report after your Bankruptcy has been discharged.

Under the FACT Act amendments to the Fair Credit Reporting Act you are entitled to one free copy of your credit report per calendar year. To request this free annual disclosure you may contact the Central Source on-line at www.annualcreditreport.com. You can also contact the Central Source to request this free annual disclosure by calling toll free (877) FACTACT or by using the mail request form available at the central source website by clicking the following link www.annualcreditreport.com.

Start to re-establish your credit as soon as possible after the Bankruptcy has been discharged.

If you have had a Bankruptcy in the past, it is critical that you start to re-establish credit as soon as possible. Lenders will want to see that after the bankruptcy was discharged that you have been able to use credit in a responsible way. The only way to re-establish your credit is to borrow money and pay it back on a timely basis.

When you get a loan and or credit you will want to make sure that it will show up on your credit report. Examples of credit / loans that will show up on your credit report are credit cards and loans from banks and credit unions. Examples of loans that will not show up on your credit report are loans from family, friends and private party loans.

Another good tool that can help you start to rebuild your credit is to get a Secured Credit Card. With a secured credit card you will need to deposit a lump sum of cash into an account. The lump sum of cash will be the banks guarantees that you will pay your debt, if you don’t they will simple take the money out of you account to pay your bill. You may want to talk to your local bank or credit union to see if they offer secured credit cards if they do not you can go to http://www.Bankrate.com and click on credit cards.

For more good information on improving your credit score you can go to http://www.myfico.com. Scroll to the bottom of the web page and go to where is says “Credit Education Documents

If you would like to talk to a real live person that has no interest in making money from you and truly would like to help you to become a homeowner you may want to contact the HOME OWNERSHIP CENTER. The Home Owner Ship center is a HUD Certified Non- Profit Organization. Their Mission is to ASSIST ANYONE in ACHIEVING SUCCESS in HOME OWNERSHIP. You can contact them by calling Toll Free 1-877-690-4496 or go to http://www.homecen.org.

Please feel free to add to this blog, ask a question or leave a comment.

Thank you,

Ron Hopkins