When seeking home financing with bad credit, your options may be limited. When seeking Jumbo Loans for bad credit, your options might even be more limited, but options are available.

Whether the low credit is due to recent foreclosure/bankruptcy/short sale or just recent collections, this post will tell you everything you need to know about how to get jumbo loans when you have bad credit.

What to Expect When Seeking Jumbo Loans for Bad Credit

In many cases, these loans can be done with as low as 500 credit score. These loans are typically referred to as “portfolio loans“.

When credit score is low, the lender is going to want to see strong compensating factors in order to give careful consideration on whether or not the loan can be funded.

Compensating factors that are helpful for approval if you do have bad credit:

• Strong equity (or down payment). Although portfolio loans will allow 10% down payment (or 10% equity), typically that is if you have at least 660 credit and at least 2 years since major credit event like bankruptcy/foreclosure/short sale. The lower the credit, the higher the down payment. Example, if you have 500, it is likely you’ll need at least 25-30% down payment.
• Strong liquid reserves. Lenders love to see that you have plenty of cash reserves or liquid reserves (401K, IRA, etc.) after it’s all said and done. It makes them feel comfortable knowing that if you were to fall on hard times, you have the means to still cover your mortgage and living expenses. Typically showing 6 months worth of reserves is a good sign.
• Strong history with employer. Stability and consistency of income/employment is important. If you have been with your employer for 3 years, that factor will strengthen the overall profile. That doesn’t mean you’ll be declined if you don’t have 3 years on the job, but it does help if you do.
• Low debt-to-income ratio. If you have bad credit, but a low debt to income ratio, it’s much more simple to demonstrate your ability to repay the mortgage. When calculating debt to income ratio, the lender will factor in your new mortgage payment (including taxes/insurance/HOA dues), and all other liabilities that are shown on your credit report. In addition, they will want to include any other real estate owned and taxes/insurance/HOA dues tied to those properties. The lender will take your monthly debt, divided by your monthly income, and that equals your debt-to-income ratio. Example, if your monthly debt is $5,000 and your monthly income is $15,000, your debt-to-income ratio is 33%. Some lenders will go as high as 55% (with strong compensating factors), but typically they are looking to see 45% or lower.
• Low payment shock. Your current housing expense will be carefully considered when factoring in your new potential housing expense. It helps to show housing payment history, and not much of an increase when comparing present housing expense with new potential housing expense (unless it is a cash out refinance, and other monthly obligations are being paid off).

Be ready to give a thoughtful explanation as to why your credit is bad.

Portfolio loans are considered case by case, and it helps if you can clearly tell the story of what happened. [more on portfolio loans here]

4 Things You’ll Need To Do When Getting Jumbo Loans For Bad Credit

1. Be prepared to tell your story. When getting a portfolio loan, the story matters. Take the time to have your facts straight and put it in writing. Help the lender understand exactly what the circumstances were which led to the credit challenge. Explain why these circumstances are isolated, and won’t happen again.
2. Have all of your documents in order. Just like any other mortgage, when getting a jumbo loan with bad credit, you’ll need to document everything (income/credit/assets). Do not try to cut corners, or ask for exceptions on having all necessary docs. The lender is already taking a risk with lending on low credit. The goal is to minimize the layers of risk involved.
3. Expect higher rates. When getting a portfolio loan you’re dealing with a different mortgage market than the conventional home financing world. These portfolio loans are designed to be a short term fix for short term circumstances. Once your credit meets normal lending guidelines, you’ll be refinancing into a traditional loan.
4. Be patient. The underwriting process may take longer than traditional financing in some cases. People are surprised by this because they figure “outside-the-box” lending = quick-and-easy. That’s just not the case. Portfolio loans are carefully underwritten, and fully documented.

Alternative Documentation | Business Owners | Self-Employed

If you are a business owner who shows low net income on tax returns, a bank statement loan may be the best option for you to show your ability to repay the mortgage.

These loans allow self-employed individuals to use their personal or business bank statements to calculate income, and can be done with some low credit scenarios.

When using personal bank statements to qualify you’ll provide 12 months bank statements. Deposits will be averaged over that time frame, and unusual/unverifiable deposits will be excluded from income average.

When using business bank statements to qualify you’ll provide 24 months bank statements. You can only use business bank statements if you are 100% owner of the business. The deposits will be reviewed/averaged, and a “expense factor” will be applied. Typically, the minimum expense factor is 35%. So if you show 100K income, the usable amount is 65K. Your CPA will need to confirm what your expense factor should be.

[more on bank statement loans here]

Keep In Mind

• Minimum down payment is 10%. The lower the credit, the higher the down payment.
• Minimum credit score 500
• Recent bankruptcy, foreclosure, short sale is okay
• Typically need to show at least 6 months reserves
• Having strong compensating factors help your likelihood of approval
• Available on home purchase and refinance
• Cash out refinance also available on jumbo loans for bad credit

In Summary

Having bad credit does not mean that you have to rent a home while you wait on getting your credit up to normal lending standards. A portfolio loan may be your perfect solution when seeking  jumbo loans for bad credit.

I invite you to reach out.

Get your questions answered.

If I cannot help, I should be able to point you in the right direction at the very least.