Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with housing and credit

Yep, another economy question!

Chris4d — Fri, 26 Sep 2008 12:30:12 -0800

Is the credit crunch (and every other economic crisis) an inevitable result of selfish attitudes? Say the continued health of the economy is (gross oversimplification) about future expectations. When reality doesn't meet expectations, there's bad news for somebody (or everybody), but it's generally temporary: lower-than-expected earnings, unhappy stockholders, smaller bonues, but still minor in the grand scheme. People still have jobs, they still contribute to GDP, trade still occurs, etc. etc.

This time, a big chunk of the economy has failed to meet expectations. But that's not a big deal. I mean, really, it shouldn't be. In my head, the investment banks and the lenders and all the other players collectively say "hey, these mortgages aren't the sure-fire investment we thought they were. Sorry! We're going to suffer for a while and we are waaaay overleveraged, but we'll clean up the mess and then we'll be fine!"

Instead, everyone is running for the door and nobody wants to get stuck cleaning up the mess they're leaving behind. Is this really a "feature" of the system, that nobody is willing to lose a little money, and so everyone now stands to lose a lot more?

Thank you for letting me display my ignorance publicly. Begin the flogging!

Shoud I bother with the new federal housing tax credit?

GuyZero — Thu, 07 Aug 2008 17:01:50 -0800

FinancialOpinionFilter: I qualify for the new Federal Housing Tax Credit! Yay! But since I have to pay it back it hardly seem useful. Plus there's extra hassle with taxes for the next 15 years. Should I bother claiming it?

Moving somewhere affordable!

hamster — Thu, 14 Feb 2008 12:22:58 -0800

Can I sell my place if I'm on a repayment plan for its mortgage? I own a home, but have had trouble making payments on the mortgage--my parents talked me into buying it, but it's been too much to handle on my salary.

I worked out a payment plan with my lender to avoid foreclosure, and will be able to get things back to normal by May.

I'm planning to move across the country this summer, and want to list the place as soon as possible because I know the housing market's crap. How would this work if I'm not up on payments?

Also, my parents don't know that I've worked out a plan--this is a long story about family dynamics. They will be helping me to list the place, but I don't want them to find out what's happening. When will I need to come clean? When we have a buyer? Before I list it?

Thanks in advance.

How do you establish your credit rating and rental history in one country when you're from another one?

Anonymous — Thu, 07 Feb 2008 21:03:58 -0800

How do you establish your credit rating and rental history in one country when you're from another one? Cue the song "go for credit in the straight world..."

MeFi’s, help me figure this one out… and sorry, there's no 'finance' category, so 'grab bag' it is...

Here's my situation – slightly tricky to deal with. I lived my entire life in one country, have a great credit history there (paid off a student loan very quickly, paid taxes etc.) - but have no credit history in my current country. Unfortunately I'm separating from my spouse, so I'm trying to prepare for renting a place on my own.

The problem is being 'invisible' - having no credit history in the U.S. We shared bank accounts and credit cards - most accounts written jointly - and I don't have my own credit card here. I *do* have a Canadian credit card that's all paid off - just maybe a $100 bucks to make sure they don't close it on me. I opened a personal U.S. bank account on my own, and suppose I could try and get a credit card on that personal account – although I don’t know what I should do to help establish credit, since suddenly spending money on a credit card for spending’s sake is not something I want to do, unless I can pay it back immediately. I don’t like debt, and want to find a way to translated this fact into reliability for a prospective landlord. I'm at a steady white color job, and the prospects for employment in my field are currently pretty good *knocks wood*.

So the question is, what can I do to establish that I’m a good solid, not-in-debt citizen? I can show prospective landlords my credit report from my home country (believe me, in my area of the country landlords are asking for credit reports and first borns). I would love to be able to show my rental history, but I lived at home with my parents, and we rented an apartment, usually with a check paid with my mum’s name on it. Once I started working I helped pay for rent – although my mother and I had a shared bank account, and she inevitably would sign the checks, so that’s kind of useless. I could ask the landlord (who’s known me for at least ten years – owners of the building even more) at my mother’s place to see if he could write me a letter of reference – basically saying I’ve lived in one place my whole life, we always paid our rent on time, were members of our tenant’s association – but wonder if that’s going to be hokey to a new landlord.

What can I do to show them I’m reliable and not a flake – a good credit report (paying off $27K in 3 years has to count for something!), resume, personal references from 3 or 4 people in lieu of a US credit history… anything else? I have a feeling if I could sit down and explain my situation it would be ok – but if a landlord sees ‘no credit history’ they might freak – and I don’t blame them.

Help! Any ideas? Who should I talk to about this? The idea of living in a motel because I can’t get into anything else is not looking fantastic…

Getting a lease with an unpleasant background

cmonkey — Wed, 07 Dec 2005 13:42:16 -0800

MetaFilter landlords: Please help me aquire a lease... Three friends of mine & I are looking for a new place to live. They all have low paying jobs, but great credit. I have a high paying job, but atrocious credit and no recent rental history (I've lived in houses for the last 5 years without being on a lease). My friends keep getting rejected because they're poor, so I need to apply with them. A few questions to those of you who rent property out:

1) Is there anything that I can do to convince a landlord that, regardless of my poor credit and missing rental history, I am actually a good tenant with a stable job who has never once paid rent late or destroyed a house? Any bribes that would work?
2) What services do you use for background checks? I'm curious what's in mine.
3) If a place says "no application fees" does that mean that they don't do background checks?

(This is a followup to this question, thanks for your help!)