Reviving Your Credit?

[William Hall]

Back in 2005, I had just purchased a set of properties, some to make into to rentals, some to flip, some personal issues came up, then of couse, the crash! I have several foreclosures sitting on my credit now.

In the future, I will use a business entity for my investments, and I am man enough to say that even though I was being drained by so-called "family", I also bit off more than I could chew.

Moral of the story: I have about 8 foreclosures sitting on my credit right now that were foreclosed around '07-'08.

Question 1: How long will these affect me given the state of the market at the time? My credit from '98-'06 is almost spotless (in '06 my FICO was at 760). When I have been able to meet face to face with someone and explain the reason for the foreclosures, they're usually forgiving, but when it's a computerized credit check, I look horrible.

Question 2: I have heard some lenders are being forgiving if your foreclosures happened during the Recession only and they are more/less 3 years old. How true is this?

Question 3: I have received settlements (pennies compared to what I poured in, just moral vindication) on 2 of the foreclosed properties from class action lawsuits. Can I go back to the credit bureaus with those documents and have the foreclosures deleted, or at least modified in some way?

Question 4:I have never used a hard money lender before. How would they view my current credit profile? Is it even realistic to go to a hard $ lender if I stumbled across a deal?

Question 5: I have a "zombie" foreclosure right now. As far as I knew, the property went to foreclosure in Feb '09. In July'11, I went to apply for a car loan, denied at first but the manager approved once I could speak with her face to face. I have tried to short sale the property, and deed-in-lieu. Both were rejected by BofA. It currently shows on my credit as 40+ payments behind with no sale date. I just relisted the property yesterday. Once sold, are there any arguments I can make that this property should have gone out of my possession in '09?

Question 6: I have a credit card showing on my report that charged off in '07-08. My grandmother filed BK in '11, and claimed it as her debt (I am named after my grandfather). I contacted the creditor, and their legal department has relinqushed the debt. I have provided the credit bureaus twice with this information, but they still refuse to remove it, instead sending me nasty, smarmy letters about clarifying my name. What recourse do I have?