By Sabrina Karl

When you apply to a lender for a home mortgage, one of the most important things they consider is your credit score. But what if you don’t have a credit history? Can you still get a mortgage?

Your credit report rates your worthiness to receive new credit by scoring the length of your history with credit cards and loans, along with your pattern of on-time vs. delinquent repayment. But for consumers who have shunned credit cards and who have never taken out a car or home loan, there is little or no information to inform their credit score.

If you’re in this situation and want to buy a home, your path will be a little trickier, or at least more cumbersome. But it’s not impossible to find a mortgage and a lender that will qualify you using nontraditional credit evaluation.

There are two main paths forward for homebuyers without a credit score: apply for an FHA mortgage or find a lender that does “manual underwriting”.

FHA mortgages explicitly allow for applicants who have a thin or non-existent credit file. In lieu of a credit history, FHA underwriting can evaluate your history of paying rent, utility bills, and insurance premiums. It also offers the ability to buy a home with a lower down payment of 5 percent or even less.

But FHA loans come with certain fees in exchange for their easier qualification terms and government backing. So if you have more than a 5 percent down payment available, you may instead want to look for a lender that offers manual underwriting.

These lenders aren’t common, but check smaller banks, online lenders, and local credit unions for this option. And be prepared to provide documentation of 12 months’ payment history for your rent and your utility, phone, and insurance bills.

By Sabrina Karl

One of the consumer benefits that emerged from the Great Recession was the first-time homebuyer credit. Enacted by the Bush administration in 2008, the program provided a tax credit to Americans buying their first home.

Part of the Housing & Economic Recovery Act, the tax credit was available to first-time buyers who purchased their home in 2008, 2009 or 2010. Although the credit has since been retired, you may still be in luck if you qualified with a home purchase during those years and neglected to file the credit, or you became a first-time buyer later.

If you closed on your first home between April 9, 2008, and September 30, 2010, you could still qualify. A number of variables come into play, so the best way to determine your eligibility is to consult a tax accountant.

You’ll want to consider a few things before going down that path, however. For instance, on first homes purchased during the eligible 2008 dates, the credit is not in fact a true credit, as it requires repaying it with your annual tax return for 15 years after the home’s purchase. So someone claiming the maximum $7,500 credit would repay $500 per year over 15 tax returns.

In 2009, the Obama administration revised the program slightly, upping the credit to an $8,000 maximum and forgiving its repayment for those living in the home as their primary residence for at least 3 years after taking the credit. So if you bought during 2009 or 2010, but sold or moved within 3 years, you’re out of luck.

For first-timers who bought after the program’s 2010 sunset date, you may still have options. Many state and local governments offer their own programs for first-time buyers, so researching what’s available in your area could turn up other financial benefits.