How long after chapter 13 bankruptcy can you purchase a home?
Everything that i’ve read says that you can get a home after 1 year in a ch 13 bankruptcy, 2 years after ch 7 bankruptcy, and 3 years after a foreclosure. I am about to file a chapter 13, and wonder how long would I have to wait before I could purchase a home. Does anyone know the actual rule and could you point me to the website or where you got your information?
Thank you!
It really depends on the banks to which you apply. The Bankruptcy will remain on your credit report for 10 years. The banks look at the date of the bankruptcy, your credit before the bankruptcy and your current credit. The amount of time it takes to show your credit-worthiness is not that easy to calculate.
Consider why you want a bankruptcy and what your credit looks like now. If your credit is spotless, then you have an incident (let’s say an accident) that leaves you with humongous debt for which you file bankruptcy, and you continue paying on your other debt … I would hazard to guess that the time would be minimal.
If, however, you have bad credit, get yourself into a bind using credit cards, etc., file for bankruptcy and include almost all your debt in it … it could take longer to be able to purchase a home.
This entry was posted on Friday, January 22nd, 2010 at 12:11 pm and is filed under chapter 13 bankruptcy. Follow the comments through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can post a comment, or leave a trackback.
It would if even possible take many years of good credit to qualify for a mortgage. It doesn’t look good to have filed under at least 7 years to a bank or other lender.
References :
January 22nd, 2010 at 5:18 pm
It really depends on the banks to which you apply. The Bankruptcy will remain on your credit report for 10 years. The banks look at the date of the bankruptcy, your credit before the bankruptcy and your current credit. The amount of time it takes to show your credit-worthiness is not that easy to calculate.
Consider why you want a bankruptcy and what your credit looks like now. If your credit is spotless, then you have an incident (let’s say an accident) that leaves you with humongous debt for which you file bankruptcy, and you continue paying on your other debt … I would hazard to guess that the time would be minimal.
If, however, you have bad credit, get yourself into a bind using credit cards, etc., file for bankruptcy and include almost all your debt in it … it could take longer to be able to purchase a home.
References :
January 22nd, 2010 at 5:30 pm
There are no ‘rules’ concerning a bankruptcy filing. The choice whether or not to grant a mortgage rests with each individual lender.
A Chapter 13 bankruptcy does not discharge debts owed, but is rather a plan under which you pay off such debts over an extended period of three to five years. If you apply for a mortgage after one year, all of these debts will be considered owing yet, and will affect the level of mortgage for which you qualify. As an example, if your agreement requires you to pay $500 monthly towards those debts, your income will need to be sufficiently high to cover that amount as well as your expected mortgage payment.
I suspect that, if your income is THAT high, you would not be considering Chapter 13.
References :
January 22nd, 2010 at 5:47 pm
The time frames you quoted are correct for FHA loans with a perfect credit since the event.
Conventional loans will be longer but the time frame is unknown.
http://www.sunnations.com/mortgagelibrary/fha_home_loans/fha_credit_guidelines.asp
http://www.fha-home-loans.com/loan_qualifying_fha_loans.htm
The FHA site is not up to date so that is why I gave you the other link. The FHA site indicates a 580 credit score but that was changed to 620 on March 2009 and it doesn’t state the time frame for chapter 13.
References :
January 22nd, 2010 at 6:23 pm