Most consumers do not understand how credit and scores work. Even if an individual has experienced a bankruptcy, foreclosure, short sale, loan modification, or just extreme late payments on a mortgage they can still participate in home ownership/loan approval again. Recently there are loan types that include shortened waiting periods for those who experienced these extreme credit damaging events. To understand the total picture of improving ones credit we must look at not just the delinquent accounts but also the value of the rest of a consumer's credit portfolio. For example: Yesterday I reviewed a credit report with a Fico score of 724. This report included a short sale from August 2013. Fico has published information about how short sales impact credit scores and if you started with a 780 and had a short sale with no deficiency balance your score could drop as low as a 655-675. Obviously the individual with the 724 Fico score after the short sale must have had a...
