How Foreclosures and Short Sales Influence Your Credit

In the United States, homeowners can get in financial trouble after missing mortgage payments, which could lead to foreclosure and negative marks on their credit report. In fact, being late on just four or five mortgage payments often leads to a foreclosure. However, a short sale is a strategy that prevents foreclosure and allows homeowners to pay off as much of the debt as possible. Foreclosure is the last step before the bank, issuer, or lender asks you to leave your home before attempting to sell it. The lender uses your FICO score to evaluate your credit risk. A low score indicates high risk, but on the contrary, a high score is indicative of a low risk.

Short sales, on the other hand, occur when a lender agrees to accept less than the amount owed against the home. It can occur because there is not enough equity in the property to pay costs of the sale. Unfortunately, not all lenders like negotiating a short sale. How Short Sales Effect Your Credit A short sale is an alternative strategy used to reduce the amount you have to foreclose. This makes selling the home before the foreclosure important because it helps prevent negative marks to your credit report. However, a short sale will still affect your credit score. Your score will likely lower for a while, and the entry can remain on your credit report for up to seven years. Some homeowners lose between 85 and 160 points, depending on their current FICO score and how severe the short sale was. The quickest and easiest option to fix this is to find a credit repair company to help you get all your negatives removed. No More Late Payments Avoiding late payments will prevent negative reflections in your credit report, especially after a short sale. Just one late mortgage payment can drop your FICO score by 90 to 110 points depending on your previous score before the late payment. Even though late payments are one of the most negative items on a credit report, there are a few factors that need to be understood: Many lenders will require you to pay a few late mortgage payments to qualify for a short sale. You will need to withstand the FICO score drop that comes with running late on a mortgage payment. Your home must sell pretty fast, because after 90 days there may be more pressure to foreclose (also known as a voluntary repossession). That option will influence your credit report in the same way as a forced foreclosure, and can, in fact, be more harmful to your credit score than a short sale. Getting your lender to mark the account “settled” or “unrated” is a less aggressive reporting option than a foreclosure mark. How Your Credit Score is Impacted by Foreclosure An unaffordable mortgage can be handled in a more serious way with a foreclosure, especially when your lender assumes full liability because you are giving up the debt. Meanwhile, some of the losses can be mitigated by a short sale, which can let you retain any real estate market gains. Still, some creditors will sue you for those funds. It´s probable that a foreclosure may let you walk away from your mortgage, but that leaves no way to determine the value of your home. In such cases, your entire mortgage balance is charged with numerous debts. Changes in Your FICO Score after a Foreclosure Your FICO score is expected to drop by 80 to 160 points, depending on the damage caused by and debt included in your foreclosure. Several months of late payments means an entry of “120 days late” on your credit report by the time the debt closes. While a short sale may be off your report after a few years, a foreclosure will affect your FICO score for much longer. A long-term late payment entry lasts a while, which means a foreclosure typically comes with more serious financial issues than a short sale. Pre-foreclosure foresight can prevent you from going bankrupt. In the worst-case scenario, your foreclosure ends in bankruptcy and your FICO score will drop by at least 240 points. The Short Sale Recommendation Your credit score will suffer either way, but a short sale is often the best option. While it will show on your report for at least two years, it is less damaging than foreclosure. In addition, it will be less difficult to build your credit score back up. It is important to remember that late payments are the main cause of credit score drops, but other factors such as foreclosure and short sales are harmful as well. Using its own terms, your credit reporting agency is the one who decides how severe the drop will be and how long it will remain on your credit report. Typically, late payments of 30 days or more will drop your score by 40 to 110 points. After 90 days, however, it may drop by as much as 70 to 135 points. With foreclosures or short sales, your credit score will drop by 85 to 160 points and could result in bankruptcy which could drop your score by 130 to 240 points (depending on each reporting agency). All those negative items stay in your credit score for years. It takes time and hard work to rebuild your credit, but there are quick solutions. Work with a team of experts who can to evaluate your case and have negative items removed .