You are here: DIME Home > Real Estate > From Poor Credit To Perfect home

From Poor Credit To Perfect home

With a bit of focus and a lot of hard work, you can recover from debt and buy a home.

Author: Bella James
Date: Mar 5, 2012 - 2:13:30 PM

Printer friendly page

From Poor Credit To Perfect home

The first time we had our finances assessed by a professional, he had nothing to recommend. We had suffered by way of a sudden loss of employment and had debt that we couldn't bring down. Our final net worth was well in the negatives. With three school age kids, we did what we could to make sure our needs were all met and then paid every penny we could to manage those endless bills. Thinking about owning a home of our own was laughable at best.

When my better half found a new job we had been at least three payments behind on all of our bills and many were forwarded to collection services. After nearly a year of struggling, we finally a steady paycheck. We also had a collection of ways to live cheap. Sure, we splurged on a few things once money was coming in. I could actually buy disposable diapers here and there, and I could even allow myself to buy brand name cereal in the event it was discounted! We kept the momentum of just living cheaply until we finally caught up our finances.

It took about a year of shuffling every penny onto bills before the collections were repaid. Another couple of months to catch up to the arrears on our vehicle payments. Suddenly, we didn’t have a constantly ringing phone or disconnection letters inside the mail. We were both bringing in good incomes I will admit we went a little overboard with spending. As opposed to building our savings, we bought stuff. A lot of stuff. Everything we had looked at or seriously considered over the last few years had been able to find a way into our shopping carts. Deprivation has some nasty effects!

We still wanted a home of our own but were afraid to try. The hard work of saving our downpayment and getting a mortgage, when it could be lost so easily, much like every thing else there was given up before. One particular piece of paper can take away your livelihood and neither of us wished to risk losing a house. We had two vehicle payments to pay, which were ridiculously high as a result of our bad credit background and being no where near repaid added to the compounding interest that occurred once we couldn’t pay on time. Somehow, we identified that all the extra money we had been shelling out to creditors could be doing more for us. We started over paying our vehicle loans. Every thing we sent in which was over our regular payment amount was used on the principal. We were careful to check for penalties before we started taking care of this debt. Sometimes early repayment can hurt.

Now, two years later, we have savings. We've vehicles that are covered in full. We have the methods to pay for a mortgage, even on merely one income. We are no more afraid of losing everything and finally have excitedly started our search for our dream home. We’ve contacted an Edmonton REALTOR and are experiencing and enjoying the process thus far, she is taking the remaining stress out of our home buying adventure. And knowing our situation, she is finding some very practical homes that truly seem to fit our lifestyle.

I never dreamed that I could be a homeowner, it appeared like the cards were not going to be in our favor. But a stable and determined effort will usually pay off, and we will never build-up the kind of debt there was before. Lesson learned, now on to the dream home!

Based on personal experience, the author explains how she successfully moved from a disastrous credit rating to working with an Edmonton Realtor to buy her first home. Learn more about buying a home at www.melodykilbank.com.

View all articles by Bella James

Link to this article:

Follow & Share Your Favorite Video Articles

Tell a Friend About This Site

Tweet about this site

Follow @dimeco

Recommended Associates

Do you write?

Would you like submit your articles and have them approved on a priority status? Find out more about how you can become a Priority author for pennies a day! Click here.