Finding a Lender with Less Than Perfect Credit History

[Ashourrina Henshaw]

Hello all, I am fairly new to the Bigger Pockets community. I am looking to purchase my first property with my boyfriend and partner, Michael, in the next few months. Ideally we would like to get the loan together and combine our incomes but I have collection accounts that are unpaid on my credit history. I am wondering if you have any advice for how to approach them. In a perfect world, I would like to settle the accounts to save more money to put into real estate but do lenders look at a settled debt negatively? Also, I've considered a pay for delete for them but I wasn't able to negotiate that will all collection agencies. What is the best route here? Also, are there lenders who are more lenient on these? Or even some who consider working with unpaid collection accounts? Long story short, I lost my job in 2012 due to the company closing and I went on unemployment. I had to let me credit cards go because I couldn't afford the payments. I owe just shy of $5,000 split between 7 collection accounts. Since then I have opened 2 new credit cards, financed a car, and have student loans. I am up to date on all of them and have never had any late payment issues. Of the new accounts, my car is 2 years old and the rest are newer. Any advice is much appreciated! Thank you, Ashourrina Henshaw