How Civil Judgment Impact Qualification for Mortgage

[Wenhao Leu]

Hi all, hoping to get more insights on this to help out a friend. So my friend helped somebody get an apartment by putting himself on the lease (super duper mistake!!), and that person who actualy lived there stopped paying rent and my friend was stuck with the lease that he wasn't able to pay. Long story short, the landlord "evicted" him and at the same time filed for a judgment against him for all unpaid expenses. Now the question is, this happened about a year or two ago, how does this judgment affect my friend's chance of obtaining a mortgage? The judgment did hit his credit report already. I think his credit recovered quite a bit after that ( i think 600-700?) tho. So is he able to get mortgage now or should he wait a while longer?

[Ham Merritt]

@Wenhao Leu You will not be able to get a conventional mortgage loan with an outstanding Judgement on your credit report. Regardless of how long you wait. All conventional mortgage lenders will require the judgement to be satisfied prior to closing on a mortgage loan. My advice would be to negotiate a settlement with the plaintiff so you can get the matter satisfied on the credit report. As long as the judgement is not paid in full or satisfied, your friend will not be able to get a mortgage.