I enjoy this forum and just joined a few days ago--find myself posting a lot of questions since I joined and here is another. I have maybe 8 total negative items of old chargeoff/collection accounts including 1 judgment on my credit report that I'm trying to take care of so that I can buy a home. Now despite the current negative items I'm only 20 points away from qualifying for a home loan, but would still like the negatives off or showing positive. I have all good standing current credit accept a credit card balance that I have to pay down below 1/3 but never late. I'm around 615 now, but my goal is to get 700+ within the next 3 years. I fear if I don't pay these negative accounts--that even after 7 years of falling off. The account will be sold and reported again. What advice can be offered to get me where I want to be?
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The best advice I have for you is to get with a mortgage broker. Since you are trying to buy a home, this will be a very valuable tool for you. The broker will be able to tell you what you HAVE to pay off before you will be approved, what your credit score has to be and look at your debt ratio.
I've been in Real Estate for over 20 years. I've seen many people work on their credit for 4-5 years in order to get a mortgage only to be told they don't qualify because of their debt to income or had a collection they weren't counting on paying. Or worse - they pay collection only to have the 7 years start all over again.