Thanks henryinma,
I appreciate your advice. I am currently working on my credit as we speak. First, I paid any outstanding accounts off in full in 2004 including all chargeoffs and collections. I even researched, as much as I could, anything that I knew of that had not made it to collections yet like doctors bills, library fees, and tuition fees from college that financial aid had not covered. I paid all that off. It took my husband and me about 1 1/2 years to do it, we had no furniture or a car, but we did did it !!! ;D
Then we opened three low limit credit cards one for him and two for me. Limits up to $300 on each card. That’s the maximum credit limit we seem to be approved for, but it’s ok. Hopefully our current credit card companies will increase our limits in time. We also purposely opened two installment loans and paid them off in order to establsih a credit history for him and re-establish one for me. He hates using credit but I convinced him of how important it was, especially in REI. So only about $800 of our debt is in credit card debt, that we pay off each month. The $7500 came from a loan that we received after purchasing our fixer upper home in February of this year. We got a loan and did everything we could to our home with that money. On the inside, we gutted the kitchen and bathrooms and totally remodled them and other parts of our home ourselves with the exception of the bath tubs, those stayed. We installed wew ceramic tile, toilets, sinks, bathroom and kitchen cabinets, appliances, carpet, paint, a new entry door, etc. All we need now is landscaping, a new deck, a new fence around our house, and to either replace or paint siding and get new windows and patio doors.
So I like to believe that I have learned from my history of poor credit that occured mostly when I went off to scool and had no job. I had debts beforehand that I didn’t pay off before going to school (thinking that I would easily get a new job while in school to pay it off-NOT TRUE!)
So anyway, although I am proud of where I came from, as far as my credit history, the fact is that it doesn’t change my score all that much. I still get denied for credit all the time because of the history even though the accounts are from 97-2003 and have ALL been paid. So what can I do?
Is there no hope for me until then? Is there no way to work around it? Is there NO lender eho will take a chance on my first REI property? Is there no one who got started in my boat with little money saved, no assets to pull from and a poor credit rating. I buy so many books that say it can be done, but reality is teaching me that it can’t. You have to have money to make money! You have to have credit to get credit. You have to have real estate properties and experience to get real properties and experience. You have to have wealth to build wealth!Where do the beginners fit in?
I am not trying to get rich overnight, our goals are modest in our opinion. Get about 2 flips per year with a minimum of $15-20k profit on each to build some cash for future investments like rei and retirement accounts, stocks and mutual funds, a college fund, etc. And to also get atleast 2 rentals per year to hold and rent over time for long term wealth. And sell in retirement years.
I know that we live in Washington, DC were the market is really saturated and competitive but we have to find a niche and do it. I can’t help where I live. And from what I hear on this board, long distance landloarding or investing in better markets in other states, especially for a beginner like me, will be a BIG mistake!
There has to be a way to do that first property!