The thought of buying a house can be overwhelming. Starting the home buying process by buying a home with bad credit can make it seem nearly impossible to get a loan, but did you know there’s such a thing as a bad credit home loan? Your credit might not be as much of a roadblock as you think.

 

In this post, we’ll talk about buying a house with bad credit in Arizona, understanding your credit score, how to qualify for a mortgage, and increase your score quickly.

Most borrowers don’t know this, but many lenders don’t require a specific minimum credit score to buy a house. The catch-22 is that a conventional mortgage lender is free to set their own requirements when it comes to your credit score. Although government-backed loans give mortgage lenders some peace of mind, they still have credit score requirements, even if they are usually much lower.

If you have a credit score lower than 500, you might find getting a mortgage a bit hard and will probably need to focus on increasing your score first.

When it comes to the actual number, anything less than a 670 FICO® Score is considered “bad” or “subprime,” according to Experian™, one of the three main credit bureaus. More specifically, a fair score is 580 to 669, while a poor score is 300 to 579. The thing about having poor credit is that it’s not the same as someone else’s bad credit.

 

No two situations are the same, and outside of your actual score, lenders will also be looking at things like:

 

Cash is your best friend when you have bad credit and the more of it you have to use toward a down payment, the better. The reason for this is that your credit score might only qualify you for a certain mortgage loan amount. If you can cover the difference with cash, you can still afford the home you want.

 

The lender you end up with will also play a factor because all lenders will have different requirements. While you can get a bad credit loan, you must be prepared to pay a higher monthly mortgage payment due to much higher interest rates.

Don’t forget, if you purchase a home with bad credit, you can always repair your credit and refinance your mortgage for much better loan terms later on.