This is a good idea anytime, but it's especially important if you want to own a home again in the future. Your previous credit score dropped by as much as 200 points because of your foreclosure and/or bankruptcy. To build it back up, make sure you are always on time with your bills. If you still maintain credit card balances, pay them down well below the credit limit. Drive your current car until it falls apart, and forget about luxury vacations and trips to the spa for a while. If the only blemish on your credit report is a foreclosure, you might get that mortgage sooner than seven years. It's often three years or less with a short sale (a bank-negotiated sale of your house for less than the outstanding mortgage). But make sure that this time around, the loan is a good one. Hopefully you’ve learned your lesson that no mortgage is better than a bad one.
– Candice Reed and Heather Anderson are coauthors of "Stealing Homes: How to Survive a Foreclosure and Move on with Your Life" and former homeowners who now happily rent.
