Late Payment on Credit Score after Covid Forbearance

[Brandon Vallee]

Hello fellow BP members! I am a beginner real estate investor and 29-year-old BP fan. I purchased my first 3-unit apartment building in January of 2020 and have been on the landlord roller coaster ever since. During the covid pandemic I was forced to be on mortgage forbearance due to tenants losing jobs and my own finances being impacted. I've since come back swinging and started looking into refinance options to take out equity from my current building that saw incredible appreciation since I purchased (bought for 315k and approximately worth 450k today). Come to find out though, my credit report was marked as late at some point during my forbearance and the credit union I typically would use can't refinance me. Now I have hit a brick wall in my strategy which previously was to refinance, use equity as a down payment, purchase next property, then repeat. Has anyone been in a similar situation or have any advice on what I can do so that my real estate investing career isn't put on hold? Thank you in advance!