futurehomeowner?

The attorney that I just used recently was really nice. He spent a lot of time on the phone with me explaining everthing that he was going to do. I am in western PA, Eugene D. Frankhttp://www.edf-law.com/

Hi breeze How'd you hear of this attorney? I can say that I have used this attorney with a positive outcome. Only complaint is that they are a little slow responding. Based on their website it seems that they do a fair number of larger cases.

I did a few with freedom this year. I would say it was 12-15 days. You can check the balance transfer page on your online account and it tells you the estimated time.

I just settled with one of the big jdb's over an auto dialer, but it was to a cell phone.

I think it varies by state but if a landlord is asking for carpet they can not get replacement value. Carpet is one of those items that has an expected depreciation. I also want to say that any carpet over 10 years old is 100% depreciated which means they can't get anything for it as it should be replaced anyways. They also can not sue for painting, unless you have changed the color and they need to get the room back to how it should be. I would research the laws in your state to make sure they are even asking for things that are legal. It may be worth a hundred or 2 to have a sit down with an attorney to get the right answers.

ADDITION TO THE OP: One thing that I failed to mention is payments. During my process I read that you should NEVER pay a JDB or CA after SOL is out. During my repair I did not pay out a single dollar. Now I was out of SOL on everything so I wasn't risking a lawsuit. I also sued 1 JDB and 1 lawfirm. So not only did I have a judgment removed but I sued the company that had the default judgment. Anyone that feels they havea violation you should talk to a lawyer. They may take a huge chunk but it is basically free money.

The fact that the money isn't all face up and to the right makes my stomach churn! Agreed, I was thinking the same thing. Congrats on the find, but what do you do when someone comes back for it??? Once again, I was thinking the same thing... That money is newer, it's not like it had been there for a long time. What do you plan to tell the previous homeowner if he comes to you and asks for the money back? I am not sure how the laws work but I would assume that anything left in the house after closing belongs to the new owners. If he came back to ask for it, then we would have some major problems since he died in January. I have some major OCD when it comes to organizing my work area but for some weird reason money doesn't bother me at all when it is facing all directions. If there were 5s or 10s in there as well It wouldn't bother me to have them all mixed together either.

Thank you! That's what I thought but was really hoping for an extra set of eyes so to speak. I'm too embarrassed to say anything to anyone in person, even if I knew someone who was finance-savvy, which I don't. Thanks again, I'll keep you all updated. I keep wondering why they're not contacting me, unless the amount is so small I'm under the radar? In my opinion, please don't talk about these problems with your friends or family (other than your spouse). The advice they tend to give you is garbage and can do way more harm than good. Trust in this board. I'm going to say that again, trust in this board. My score has gone up 100 points since I found this place (in one year). If I had listened to my college educated wife on this, well, my score would have gone the opposite way. I would have re-affirmed all of my debts, reset the SOL on everything, and agreed to pay "back interest" on them. I'd still have a mountain of debt that would be growing, instead now I see the light at the end of the tunnel. I'll use only this one example. My wife was afraid that we'd lose our beloved cat in a JDB's lawsuit. Now, everyone here knows that can NEVER happen. A JDB can't take property that has no value, just to deprive you of it. But she thought they could. So, my advice... Read this board, ask for advice as needed, follow that advice. You have found the yellow brick road Miss AnnabelleRed, start walking. This is very good advice. My co workers are all very well educated. I have not talked much about my road to owning a house as it is a little embarrassing. However, during conversations I hear them say some of the dumbest credit related stuff. Thank you! That's what I thought but was really hoping for an extra set of eyes so to speak. I'm too embarrassed to say anything to anyone in person, even if I knew someone who was finance-savvy, which I don't. Thanks again, I'll keep you all updated. I keep wondering why they're not contacting me, unless the amount is so small I'm under the radar? Its weird the things these creditors do. I talked about a car loan that I had that they never repo'ed the car, never called me, and never sent me a letter. I still have the car but havent driven it for a few years.http://creditboards.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=508563&hl=%2Bcar+%2Bloan Odd...so do you own the car now, or do they? I've really only ever had small medical collections or small charge offs. I would have thought this would be different but who knows I guess. Also, did it fall off last month? Just curious:) Yes still have the car and yep it is completely gone. I went through my mortgage process and it never came up. On my first mortgage pull the CA put a TL on my report which I think was in August but I already had the OC removed due to obsolete so I called each CRA and had them remove the CA as well.

yeah sometimes there is just nothing that you can do. My new mortgage is less than your medical bills.

Thank you! That's what I thought but was really hoping for an extra set of eyes so to speak. I'm too embarrassed to say anything to anyone in person, even if I knew someone who was finance-savvy, which I don't. Thanks again, I'll keep you all updated. I keep wondering why they're not contacting me, unless the amount is so small I'm under the radar? Its weird the things these creditors do. I talked about a car loan that I had that they never repo'ed the car, never called me, and never sent me a letter. I still have the car but havent driven it for a few years. http://creditboards.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=508563&hl=%2Bcar+%2Bloan

just a quick google search found that private loans can be wiped out and they have a SOL. Student loans can be wiped out in bankruptcy… And you’ve likely heard that you can’t unload student loans in bankruptcy, but that is also largely untrue and in fact, it may be easier to get rid of private than federal loans in a chapter 7 bankruptcy. If you truly can’t afford to pay these loans and if you’ve got other debts accumulated, you may want to take this option. But there’s also one last thing to consider that you may not know – private student loans have a shelf life in the form of a statute of limitations (which federal loans don’t have).

This was also my first thought. I know government loans never go away, just like a tax debt. Are we sure that private loans don't have the same protection?

The fact that the money isn't all face up and to the right makes my stomach churn! Congrats on the find, but what do you do when someone comes back for it??? haha, about 10 years ago I was making a business deposit of approx 10k in all cash. The teller refused to take it because it wasn't all organized. I was so mad, I called the branch manager when I got back and threatened to take our business elsewhere. I was running a 6 million a year business so I am pretty sure it was an account he didn't want to lose in a small town. I was never hassled again after that.

I was actually ok with the paneling. It was painted and didn't look to bad. However, I will give you 1 guess on who was not ok with it.

no lie. I actually found it by accident. There is a wall that comes out from the original wall. The seller told me that there is a fireplace mantle behind the wall. In the new wall there are a set of shelves built in. The bottom 2 shelves go about a foot back behind the wall so I was looking to see if there was a way that I could see the mantle. I was curious if it is something that we could restore and have a nice feature to the room. Then I saw the little yellow container tucked into the corner. At first I thought it was like mouse poison, I slowly picked it up and shook it. I could tell right away what it was. I peaked into it but didn't see the denom. I opened the lid and threw it up into the air. Man that is some good sh!t right there!!! I love it! Congrats!!!! Today I was at the house removing 2 walls that were paneling. I was hoping to find a hidden container but no luck. However I did uncover nice woodwork from early part of the century that was part of the staircase that is similar to this but ours is much more detailed. It needs restored though. http://www.4creativecarpentry.com/images/Staircase-Dec067.jpg

thanks all. I think having a new house and a wife that is decorating is more stressful than this whole credit rebuild thing.

no lie. I actually found it by accident. There is a wall that comes out from the original wall. The seller told me that there is a fireplace mantle behind the wall. In the new wall there are a set of shelves built in. The bottom 2 shelves go about a foot back behind the wall so I was looking to see if there was a way that I could see the mantle. I was curious if it is something that we could restore and have a nice feature to the room. Then I saw the little yellow container tucked into the corner. At first I thought it was like mouse poison, I slowly picked it up and shook it. I could tell right away what it was. I peaked into it but didn't see the denom. I opened the lid and threw it up into the air.

I meant to apply under my wifes name since she is not on the home loan but I wasn't thinking. Owell, shouldn't matter. By far my largest credit line. Congratulations! Your application for Southwest Airlines Rapid Rewards Premier Card has been approved. You'll receive your new card and Cardmember Agreement in 7-10 business days. When your card arrives, please confirm you received it by logging on to Chase.com or calling the toll-free number provided. Your new account has a Credit Access Line of $12,000. If this does not meet your needs, you can discuss available credit line options with a Customer Service Specialist when you call to confirm receipt of your card.

we found this in the wall today as well.

It is almost surreal that I am writing this post. This post is probably going to get pretty long but I will try to keep it within reason. I can’t thank the great members of this forum for their help during my process. I don’t want to name people specifically in fear that I will leave someone out. A huge thanks also goes out to the owners and the admins of this site. Without them my dream would have never had a chance. 2001: I opened a business. It did well for a few years but ultimately I had to close it. When I closed I had stopped paying ALL my bills because I thought they were property of the business and it wouldn’t affect me. Obviously I was wrong since I was a sole proprietor. I never checked my credit score but I would assume it was pretty low. 2005: I thought it would be smart to work with a debt consolidation company and get everything taken care of. Again, this was a failure. I not only wasted a ton of money but the SOL was restarted on a few of the accounts. Since payments were not possible, my credit again was neglected. 2010: We got married and it was time to be a grown up. I never checked my credit as I was completely ignorant to the entire process, but I was denied for a few credit cards. My wife had an active card or 2 but also had some credit blemishes in the past. 2013: March 11th to be exact. We now have 1 kid and planning for a 2nd. My wife really wants to own a house and get out of the rent cycle. I start looking around the internet to get our credit score. For 1 reason or another I ended up at Patelco Credit Unions website. I did an online mortgage app and found out that our credit scores were just horrible. Seeing these scores really put it into perspective how bad our histories were. I was really down in the dumps figuring that we would never own a house and my wife would be disappointed. After a few hours of internet searching I decided that we should file bankruptcy. I ended up on creditboards because there was a bankruptcy section. While looking around the site I read good ole Joseph C’s credit journey. I was amazed what he was doing and how much help he was given. This is when I realized that bankruptcy may not have been the answer. All of a sudden there was hope that I could correct 10 years worth of negligence. I made a promise to myself and to my family that this would never happen again. I didn’t want to jump right into repair so I did almost 3 weeks worth of reading. I am not talking about here and there; I am talking about 4-5 hours of reading EVERY single day. On March 23rd the animal inside me was ready to get started. I started my credit repair journey and publicized it here. http://creditboards.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=509227 As listed in that thread here is a few exerts: My current FICO is 538 and hers is 612 Our Goals: Buy a house in 1 year by: Getting my credit north of 620 and utilization under 10%, get my wife's credit over 700 with utilization under 10% I felt that those are some pretty lofty goals that I set. I wasn’t sure that I could get it accomplished in that time frame but I was up for the challenge. During the next 12 months I was on this site every single day. It almost became an obsession. Every time our scores went up it was like a new high. I wanted more and more and more. I kept reading and reading and reading. On my 1 year anniversary of my repair thread and the original goal date here is where we stood. My current FICO is 538 700 and hers is 612 729 Our Goals: Buy a house in 1 year by (we did not buy a house but we had our pre approval) Getting my credit north of 620 and utilization under 10% (I crushed both of those goals), get my wife's credit over 700 with utilization under 10% (I crushed this goal as well.) I was speechless when I saw the progress. In fact it almost brought me to tears. 2014: Today, October 20th, we closed on our house. The hundreds of hours that I have spent on my repair have now come full circle. At the beginning I was hopeful that this day would come but I was skeptical. 588 days after the start of my credit repair I can officially say that it has been a success. My current stats as of 10/20/2014 I started the repair with tons of collections and 1 credit card. Name/limit/balance Emblem (going away tomorrow) $149 $0 Chase Freedom $6000 $3500 0% APR Walmart (her) $3500 $0 Walmart (me) $2600 $0 Kays (her) $7000 $0 Kays (me) $5000 $0 Firestone $2400 $0 Pepboys $2200 $0 Merrick $3200 $980 Best Buy $1600 $0 Giant Eagle (grocery store) $1200 $250 Lane Bryant $1260 $0 Target $1400 $0 Total Rewards visa $3500 $650 Credit lines= $41009 Balance= $5380 13% util Mortgage for $86,000 Me: 100% clean reports Her: only negative that is left are student loans late payments from 2008. They are from AES and they will not budge on these. Now I can concentrate on keeping our util low and adding prime cards with good rewards. Today is officially the end of one chapter and the beginning of a new one. Again I want to say thank you to everyone that helped us through this journey. Hopefully I can pay it forward to any new people who come here looking for hope. Here are links to my other threads: http://creditboards.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=509227 credit journey http://creditboards.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=524657 home buying journey

Sorry phone died on me. We closed and are now officially home owning/bank renting. Closing was quick and painless. It is so exciting.

8 hours to go

The 1099s were one of my concerns as well. I wasn't sure if they actually did give them to you but I figured that they did.

As mentioned, getting your scores up is not an overnight process. It took you over 10 years to get them to where they are now. First step is ALWAYS read the entire newbie section along with the link listed above. It may seem overwhelming at first but anything and everything is possible with hard work. Once you do that feel free to post specific lines on here. My biggest advice is; after you are done triaging your reports, take ONE tradeline from ONE report and only concentrate on that one. A lot of people will look at 8 lines at a time but then they get overwhelmed. Once you have done everything possible with the 1 TL then move on to the next. It may make the process slightly slower but it will make it more thorough and less overwhelming. Just my two cents.

oh boy I guess there are more than what I was figuring. I didn't think about the national types like chase. There was 1 local bank that has been doing this for a few years but over the last few months it seems like every bank is doing it. I forgot about the chex part. I guess I will call each one and find out what they pull before I do it.