Get A Mortgage With Bad Credit? It's Possible & These 5 Mortgage Experts Can Help.

By Richard Barrington
Mortgage Credit Problems Columnist

Knowledge is power. Whether you are looking for your first home loan, are interested in refinancing or accessing home equity, or trying to cope with bad credit, the first step is to get information and gain some control. Your being here and getting the right expert advice is half the battle.

Whether you are trying to get the best deal on a new home or want to tap into your home equity to payoff debt or consolidate bills with a lower interest rate, stay informed. Getting a mortgage is certainly not the easiest thing to do, and even if you have friends and family helping you, it is you who has ultimate responsibility for not only getting the best mortgage deal, but also paying the mortgage. But you can make smart choices - these well-researched and helpful resources will help:

1. Who Says You Can't Buy a Home!: How to Put Credit Problems, Down Payment Challenges, and Income Issues Behind You, by David Reed.

Often, the best way to negotiate something is to take the perspective of the person on the other side of the desk. David Reed offers you some insight into that perspective with this book.

Reed knows a great deal about that perspective, because he is a twenty-year veteran of the mortgage lending industry. In this capacity, he has participated in over 2,000 mortgage loans in various states. He is the president of CD REED Mortgage Bankers, and his opinion on mortgage issues has been widely sought. Reed has appeared as a mortgage expert on network television and has been quoted by prestigious publications such as the New York Times and the Washington Post.

This book includes material targeted at people who have been burdened with poor credit. By offering an insider's view of how the lending industry looks at that segment of the market, Reed's book gives prospective borrowers enough ammunition to at least make negotiations with mortgage lenders a fair fight. Remember, this isn't just a question of trying to get the best deal available. Having some knowledge of the industry you are dealing with will help you avoid the predatory lending practices which have victimized some home owners. It's important to remember that there are plenty of honest lenders out there, and the more you know about the industry, the more easily you can tell the good from the bad.

2. How to Buy a Home When You Can't Afford It by Robert Irwin.

Don't let the title of this book fool you -- the idea is not to get you into a house purchase you can't afford. Instead, this book can help make buying a house affordable, even when you think that isn't possible.

Robert Irwin is a prolific real estate author, having written more than 60 books on the subject based on his 35 years as a licensed real estate broker. In this book, he addresses all the components that go into making a home affordable, including:

• Shopping for the best housing prices. This can mean identifying under-valued neighborhoods, or putting some work into the house yourself to make it more affordable.
• Overcoming poor credit. People with bad credit always pay more for their loans, and the way the lending environment has tightened, they may not be able to get a loan at all. This book details the steps you need to take to make your credit record more attractive to lenders.
• Minimizing your down payments. Even if you can afford a full down payment, there are some practical reasons for minimizing it if you can. A lower down payment can leave you with a cash cushion against future financial setbacks. Also, keeping control of the cash is cheaper than trying to regain access to it later on via a home equity loan or a home equity line of credit (HELOC).

3. The Complete Idiot's Guide to Buying Foreclosures by Bobbi Dempsey and Todd Beitler.

Again, it's easy to see the challenges posed by the financial crisis, but these environments also create opportunities. Real estate opportunities created by foreclosures are the focus of this book by Bobbi Dempsey.and Todd Beitler.

Professional writer Dempsey and foreclosure expert Beitler team up on this book, which shares important information on how both banks and government agencies go about selling foreclosed properties. Understanding this process can save numerous logistical headaches for bargain-hunters, and with the rise in foreclosures, there have never been more of these opportunities.

Knowing something about how to buy foreclosures doesn't just help you save time and find good deals. It can also help you avoid the kind of scams which tend to proliferate in turbulent markets.

4. All About Mortgages--Insider Tips for Financing and Refinancing Your Home by Julie Garton-Good.

For some people, mortgage shopping isn't about getting a new home loan. In many cases, people need to refinance their mortgages in order to make the monthly payments manageable. This book deals with both types of situation--buying a home and refinancing.

Julie Garton-Good is a syndicated columnist and author who has been called "America's Home Affordability Expert." Her book is both a how-to and a resource directory, offering step-by-step guidance and several specific sources of mortgage information. This type of information can be useful to all types of mortgage shoppers: home buyers, refinance borrowers, or people looking for a home equity loan or HELOC.

5. The Common-Sense Mortgage by Peter Miller. 

If there is one thing the mortgage and real estate markets can use these days, it's a dose of common sense. That's what Peter Miller offers in spades in this book.

Miller is a syndicated real estate columnist, and the author of four other books on the subject. The focus of this book is on the money that can be saved if you know how to shop for a mortgage.

The information Miller provides includes key questions mortgage shoppers should ask, and examples and tables which help illustrate key concepts. Whether it is a first mortgage, a refinanced mortgage, or a home equity loan or HELOC, subtle differences can add up to tens of thousands of dollars over the life of the loan. The more you understand, the more you can make sure these differences work in your favor.

Experience is a great teacher, but unfortunately, most people don't get that many chances to negotiate a new home loan or to refinance a mortgage. However, you can learn from the experiences of others, and the books described above offer you the opportunity to do just that.

About the Author
Richard Barrington is a freelance writer and novelist who previously spent over twenty years as an investment industry executive.

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