Buying A House and Car AFTER Bankruptcy
Any honest bankruptcy expert or bankruptcy attorney can tell you:
- Bankruptcy will not prevent you from getting a house or a car. In fact, it might even be the fastest way for you to be able to buy a house or car!
- Usually what people are worried about is a car-loan or a mortgage. To buy a house you need good credit and a down payment. Bankruptcy can get you good credit quickly.
Consider two friends: Each has $30,000 in credit card debt.
Until today, both friends have been making minimum payments of $300 per month. Both friends get the money from their family and gifts and overtime that causes a lot of stress in their lives.
Friend One: files bankruptcy today and starts saving her gift money. Friend Two: does not file bankruptcy and keeps making minimum payments of $300 per month.
Who is going to afford a house more quickly? See the Easy Chart Below To Understand!
Red equals Debt | Green equals Savings| Today | Six Months | One Year | Two years | Three Years | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bankruptcy (Friend One) | zero | $1,800 | $3,600 | $7,200 | $10,800 |
| Non-Bankruptcy (Friend Two) | $30,000 | $30,174 | $30,360 | $30,153 | $29,200 |
Three years from today
Friend One who filed bankruptcy has a nice $10,800 down payment for a house. She has had three years to restore her good credit and her debt to income ratio is great! (she has no debt and only income; this is really good!)
Friend Two who did not file bankruptcy still has almost the same debt she started with. Her credit score won’t be much better (and possibly will be worse) than Friend One who filed bankruptcy. Her debt is so high that she can never pay it. Getting a good mortgage will be impossible. She just wasted three years and over $10,000.
The same principles that apply to getting a mortgage apply to getting a car loan. Any honest and knowledgeable bankruptcy expert will tell you that if you need bankruptcy, it is the best option.
A little New York Bankruptcy Lawyer Humor
A man is at the doctor’s office and finds out he needs surgery on his hand. The man looks at his doctor and asks, “doctor, after the surgery will I be able to play the violin?”
The doctor replies, “Sure, after the surgery you will be able to play the violin”. The man smiles and says, “Thanks doc, because I always wanted to be able to play the violin”
Sometimes I feel just like the doctor when people ask me if they can buy a house after bankruptcy. People come into my office, making $30,000 per year with two children. They have $20,000 of debt and are barely able to pay rent. I tell them that they need bankruptcy and they ask me “but will I be able to buy a house afterwards”?
So, the first answer is that if you need bankruptcy, then bankruptcy is certainly the fastest path to home ownership. Click or tap the blue links to read about credit scores and how bankruptcy will improve your credit score faster than not filing bankruptcy.
In order to buy a house, you need to have good credit. If you have a huge debt to income ratio, and you cannot pay your monthly credit card payments, your credit score is terrible. Before you think about buying a house, you need to get rid of your debt and rebuild your credit. For most people reading this right now, unless they expect a very dramatic increase in income or have a lot of money coming from a settlement or family member, nothing will help restore your credit like bankruptcy.
Nothing will help you to purchase a home and car like having good credit.