How one customer handled the rejection of her application

Jenny was a first-time homebuyer in her early twenties when she first began looking at mortgage loans. She had a moderate income and enough cash to cover a fifteen-percent down payt. While she hadn’t spent much time researching mortgage information, Jenny was confident that her application would be quickly processed and approved. Instead, much to Jenny’s surprise, her application was quickly processed and rejected.

After she recovered from her shock, she called the lender to find out what had happened. She half-expected them to say there had been a mistake. Of course, that did not happen. Instead, the lender explained that Jenny’s bad credit history indicated that she was a high-risk borrower. The representative diplomatically suggested that she continue renting for a few years. During that time, she felt that Jenny should be able to suitably clean up her credit.

Since Jenny had not taken the time to research mortgages, she had not realized that her credit history would affect her application. In fact, she hadn’t even realized that her credit was bad. Sure, she had maxed out her credit cards after college and missed a few payments, but she had a new job and was trying to be more responsible. Jenny had assumed that her job and a fifteen-percent down payment would be sufficient to prove her worth as a borrower, but it wasn’t.

Ultimately, Jenny decided to follow her lender’s advice and put off buying a house for a few years. During that time, she paid down her debt and stopped using her credit cards. When she resubmitted her application two years later, Jenny’s mortgage was approved. This time, she wasn’t surprised.