How can I get a home loan within 2 years of bankruptcy?
Your only option might be finding a seller-financed property with a motivated seller who is willing to take the risk of loaning you money. However, be prepared to pay a hefty rate on that loan if you can even pull it off. There are a few loan programs that grant exceptions to bankruptcy requirements in the event of extenuating circumstances that can be proven to be outside of your control (i.e. massive medical bills that you used bankruptcy to settle, etc.) however, in order to make the case for this exemption, you would need to make a strong case for your solvency, shown the ability to re-establish your credit reputation since the discharge of your bankruptcy, and would almost certainly have to go through a bank that offers manual underwriting. Additionally, if you are Native American, the HUD-184 program is a great option for your situation as it allows for a wide latitude in terms of underwriter discretion and is always manually underwritten as there is no automated underwriting system developed for the loan program. There are several great lenders that offer nationwide financing (as long as you're in a HUD-184 eligible area) and would be a great potential solution if you meet the qualifying parameter of being Native American.
Find out whether your state has a homestead law or something similar, which might protect your primary residence during bankruptcy. You may have to explicitly register to receive that protection; details differ. Frankly, you'll get better answers to this sort of question from an agency in your area which deals with folks at risk of of bankruptcy/foreclosure/etc. They should know all the tricks which actually work in your area. Hiring a lawyer may also be advisable/necessary It sort of sounds like you want to contradictory things: (1) to fix your credit so you will be able to get loans and (2) to have more money available to spend now. It sounds like the latter is probably not possible.  Not without getting into a worse situation than you are currently in (based on what you have written the next step is payday loans and the like, which is basically financial suicide). Fixing your credit is simple.  It's just not fun.  Cut your spending.  Cut it way, way, way down.  You will certainly have to change your lifestyle. I'd suggest taking a second job. Make the minimum payment on everything, then put all your extra money toward the most pressing things: I would focus on the former.  As you pay down your debt your utilization will go down, and this will raise your score automatically.  When you pay off your highest interest rate debt, don't change your spending.  Instead put everything you were putting to that to the next highest debt you have.  Continue until your highest interest rate loan is at or below the mortgage rate. When you get to this point you will notice that your credit score is vastly better and you are no longer spending all your money on interest.  You will probably be in a position to buy a home.  And you will have the satisfaction of knowing you did it yourself, rather than having a bankruptcy judge force you to change your lifestyle. A note on the items in collections: make sure they are all legit.  If any are wrong, it is pretty straightforward to contest them with the credit bureaus and get them taken off.  Things in collections will drop your score severely. Depending on the state this might not be possible. Loans are considered contracts, and various states regulate how minors may enter into them. For example, in the state of Oregon, a minor may NOT enter into a contract without their parent being on the contract as well. So you are forced to wait until you turn 18. At that time you won't have a credit history, and to lenders that often is worse than having bad credit. I can't help with the car (other than to recommend you buy a junker for $500-$1,000 and just live with it for now), but you could certainly get a secured credit card or line of credit from your local bank. The way they are arranged is, you make a deposit of an amount of your choosing (generally at least $200 for credit cards, and $1,000 for lines of credit), and receive a revolving line with a limit of that same amount. As you use and pay on this loan, it will be reported in your credit history. If you start that now, by the time you turn 18 you will have much better options for purchasing vehicles. I'd suggest you start with a budget that includes savings, the minimum payment for those loans, estimates for recurring expenses, entertainment, and lifestyle items. That will let you baseline how much money you need for the lifestyle you want to have. Then apply your income to that model and whatever is left distribute out to your loans starting with the highest risk (not forgivable in bankruptcy/would make you homeless if you don't pay) and highest interest rate. This is fraud and could lead to jail time. The vast majority of people cannot obtain such loans without collateral and one would have to have a healthy income and good credit to obtain that kind of loan to purchase something secured by a valuable asset, such as a home. Has this been done before?  Yes, despite it being the US, you may find this article interesting.     Hopefully, you see how the intent of this hypothetical situation is stealing. Why not just do an FHA loan? The minimum credit score is 580, and you can sometimes even go lower than that. Another alternative is to consider a rent-to-own agreement with his landlord, since it sounds like if he doesn't buy he'd continue renting there anyway. These are your options: Unfortunately this will not be a quick process. You should note that until a potential lender goes through a detailed review of your finances you have only been pre-qualified. This is not as good as pre-approved. With pre-qualified they are basing the determination on what you told them, not what you can prove.  Because you are aware of your short period of continuous employment you are best to be completely honest with a potential lender. That way you don't run into problems 30 days down the road when they realize the issue. The home seller will not be happy; and there was time and money wasted on down payments, credit checks, home inspections, and appraisals.  In the US in most markets while there is a significant risk that a particular house will not be available in 5 months, there is a very slight risk that a neighborhood will not be available in 5 months. "If you owe the money to A, and B owes you money and goes bankrupt, that has no effect whatsoever on your loan from A.   Obviously.   Your best bet -- while you still owe and are owed by the same company -- is either get them to agree to apply your credit to your debt (reducing it to $30,000) -- or rush to the courthouse and ask a judge to order this done.   You want to do this well before the bankruptcy is filed; too close and someone could object to you having been paid preferentially or ""out of turn"" -- and claw back the money, meaning you now owe it to the bankruptcy trustee.   Your debt to them is, from their perspective, an asset.  It is an asset with a cash value (based on the probability of people in that portfolio paying).  It can be sold to gain some immediate cash instead of more cash over a time period.  This is routine in the debt world.  Before or during the throes of bankruptcy, and depending on what the reorganization plan is, the bank is quite likely to sell your debt to someone else to raise cash - typically a distress sale for a fraction of its principal value (e.g. 20% or $10,000).  That goes into the pool of money to pay creditors such as yourself, and if you're lucky, you'll get some of it.   So good on you, you got $2000 back from the bank and now you owe someone else $50,000.  I'm assuming they owe you $20,000 for IT services or because you put a new roof on their branch, or something like that.  If it's money on deposit at the bank, then two things are true: First, pre-bankruptcy, you can trivially command the bank to dump the entire $20,000 into paying down the debt.  Instantly: done, and irreversible.  The bankruptcy trustee can't claw that back because it was never the bank's money, it was yours.   Second, any civilized country has deposit insurance, which they typically implement by helping another bank buy out your bank, and continue to honor your deposits, so this is seamless and hands-off for you. Your old checks continue to work, your branch just changes their sign.   This deposit insurance has limits, which is only a problem for the very rich (who are dumb enough to put over the limit in one bank)." "There are a few of ways to do this: Ask the seller if they will hold a Vendor Take-Back Mortgage or VTB. They essentially hold a second mortgage on the property for a shorter amortization (1 - 5 years) with a higher interest rate than the bank-held mortgage. The upside for the seller is he makes a little money on the second mortgage. The downsides for the seller are that he doesn't get the entire purchase price of the property up-front, and that if the buyer goes bankrupt, the vendor will be second in line behind the bank to get any money from the property when it's sold for amounts owing. Look for a seller that is willing to put together a lease-to-own deal. The buyer and seller agree to a purchase price set 5 years in the future. A monthly rent is calculated such that paying it for 5 years equals a 20% down payment. At the 5 year mark you decide if you want to buy or not. If you do not, the deal is nulled. If you do, the rent you paid is counted as the down payment for the property and the sale moves forward. Find a private lender for the down payment. This is known as a ""hard money"" lender for a reason: they know you can't get it anywhere else. Expect to pay higher rates than a VTB. Ask your mortgage broker and your real estate agent about these options." I think  the cleanest way to do this is to rent the house from your father for 2 years, possibly adding an option to buy at a set price to the lease agreement.  That takes care of any gift issues, and avoids complications like you living in a house that you couldn't afford to own otherwise.  If/when you are able to afford a mortgage, get a mortgage on the house and buy it from your father.   Will a bank be willing to take out a mortgage on a house that I technically own for the full amount? I would not take out a mortgage for anything more than 80% of the house's market value.  Anything more than that, and you need to pay mortgage insurance, which will increase your monthly payment for no benefit to you.   My biggest concern is that you won't be able to afford an 80% mortgage after 2 years.  If your father really wants to keep the house in the family then he should either keep the house and rent it to you, or give you the down payment as a gift (keeping under the maximum gift to avoid taxes). If neither you or your father cannot afford the house you may have no choice but to sell it.  I would not advise you make a bad financial decision purely for sentimental reasons. It sounds like you may need to look into the different types of personal loans that are available to you. Typically, they are in 2 categories: secured vs unsecured. A personal loan is usually of the unsecured variety, meaning that the bank is loaning you money with no collateral to use if you default. These loans will have much higher interest rates than a secured loan. A prime example of a secured loan would be a mortgage or an equity line of credit.  If you want an unsecured personal loan to use towards making those improvements, then whether or not you receive the loan will depend on your credit rating and income status. As Aganju stated, these loans don't really care what the money is used for. Because it's not your property that you're fixing up, you won't be able to get a secured loan against that property. If your mother took out a loan against her home (like a second mortgage), she may be able to get a significantly lower interest rate than what you'll get with an unsecured loan. She could also look into a renovation/remodeling loan, which would require information regarding the work being done such as costs and how it will improve the value of the property. If she used an equity line of credit instead, then they don't typically care what the money will be used for as it's just a credit line against the equity she's already built into her mortgage payments over the years. "There are two options (according to Wells Fargo). You can either apply for a Business/Commercial Equity Loan or a Line of Credit. A loan is what it sounds like - they give you a lump sum of money for you to use and you have to pay it in monthly installments. A line of credit is like a credit card, you have money that you can borrow (up to a certain amount) and you have to make monthly payments. The process can differ for different business, they probably look at what your real estate is worth, how much money you are generating from it, etc. I am not recommending or endorsing Wells Fargo, other major banks offer the same types of products, Wells Fargo just happened to appear first when I searched for ""business line of credit""." It's sad.  My mother lost her job after a brutal divorce.  BOA bought up Countrywide, then when my mother pleaded for assistance BOA said they could not help her unless she was behind/in default of her mortgage.  She tried to do a deed-in-lieu with a lawyer and BOA refused to accept the deed-in-lieu many times.  Then BOA sold her mortgage to Green Tree (?) and they refused her deed-in-lieu as well.   This went on for over 2 years and they foreclosed on the house.  I told my mother to sue because they should have accepted her deed-in-lieu because it was approved by the court in her bankruptcy but she was tired of trying to save her house that she just walked away.  6 months after she left and moved in with my sister Green Tree called her offering a refinance at a lower rate and a mortgage payment that was less than a typical car payment.  Now 5 years later my mom is just going to pay cash for her house and never do a mortgage again. It sounds like there are no provisions in the loan document for how to proceed in this case.   I would view this as creating a brand new loan. The amount owed is going to be (Principal remaining + interest from 2 years + penalties).  If you created a new loan for 13 years, that would not be how I would expect a lender to behave. I would expect most repayment plans to be something like make double payments until you are caught up or pay an extra $1000 per month until caught up and then resume normal payments. What options do I have? Realistically?  Get a regular full time job.  Work at it for a year or so and then see about buying a house. That said, I recently purchased a decent home.  I am self-employed and my income is highly erratic.  Due to how my clients pay me, my business might go a couple months with absolutely no deposits.   However, I've been at this for quite a few years.  So, even though my business income is erratic, I pay myself regularly once a month.  In order to close the deal with the mortgage company I had to provide 5 years worth of statements on my business AND my personal bank accounts.  Also I had about a 30% down payment.   This gave the bank enough info to realize that I could absolutely make the payments and we closed the deal. I'd say that if you have little to no actual financial history, don't have a solid personal income and don't have much of a down payment then you probably have no business buying a house at this point.  The first time something goes wrong (water heater, ac, etc) you'll be in a world of trouble.