I'm interested in purchasing a piece of property. The land I'm interested in is being listed for $26,000 but my family knows the owner so he went down to $23,000. I went to State Employees Credit Union and Bank of America applying for loans and wasn't approved for the amount I need. I'm getting very discouraged at this point.

Have any of you used the online loan sites? Which ones? What was your experience like? Any suggestions for where to go from here?

[Edited on July 25, 2007 at 12:06 PM. Reason : .]

7/25/2007 12:06:27 PM

did you put anything against it?

7/25/2007 12:17:45 PM

Quote :

"wasn't approved for the amount I need"

Do you know why? Poor credit? Was the land appraised for much less? Nargles?

7/25/2007 12:40:07 PM

why were you denied

7/25/2007 12:41:03 PM

In the past I have been careless with my credit cards. I've never missed a payment or had a late payment, but I have a lot to pay for right now.


I don't use them anymore.

[Edited on July 25, 2007 at 1:01 PM. Reason : .]

7/25/2007 1:01:02 PM

so you have a lot of debt and want to incur even more debt

will your family cosign you? or were you already denied with a cosigner

7/25/2007 1:03:16 PM

Improve your credit, reduce your debt, lower your household expenses (rent and utilities), increase your income, and/or find a cosigner.

7/25/2007 1:03:57 PM

yep, your debt to equity ratio is what is killing you

7/25/2007 1:30:57 PM

a lot of institutions shy away from loans for only land (undeveloped, w/ no structures on them), especially if you're in an unfavorable financial situation.

7/25/2007 2:10:19 PM

thanks guys.

it looks like my mom is going to help me with some of this. she's going to find a way to loan me the difference between what the bank can give and the price of the land.

between repayment of the loan, payment on all my credit cards, and not using credit anymore, I hope to increase my score. I don't pay utilities or rent right now, so that helps.

7/25/2007 3:55:56 PM

is this intended to be a real estate investment?

7/25/2007 4:44:51 PM

this is intended to eventually be my primary residence.

7/25/2007 4:49:08 PM

You can get a construction loan to include land, or is that not allowed?

7/25/2007 4:56:45 PM

since it may be a while before building starts on the property, I have to get what my credit union calls an "unimproved property" loan.

7/25/2007 4:58:27 PM

Yeah, like it was said earlier, most institutions don't like those

7/25/2007 5:10:24 PM

If you keep looking around you will probably find someone that to finance it. The rates at credit unions are usually way lower partially because they don't do risky loans. Thats why you need a down payment.

There is probably someone who will finance it 100% but you are not gonna like the rate as much. Take the help from the family.

Quote :

"between repayment of the loan, payment on all my credit cards, and not using credit anymore, I hope to increase my score. I don't pay utilities or rent right now, so that helps."

You need to get all of your cards down to less than 1/3 of the available balance. Don't close them immediately after paying them off, also don't try to pay one in full then work on the next one. Your scores will go up faster if you can just get the balances under a certain percentage of the credit limit. Whats holding your scores down is the high balances in comparison to your available credit, just cut up the cards and leave the accounts open.

http://www.truecredit.com has a monitoring thing that will help you keep track of your entire credit profile and make recommendations for how to raise the scores. Its only $15 a month and well worth it IMO.

7/25/2007 5:17:09 PM