Erase FORECLOSURES from Credit Reports: Two Insider Strategies!

Hey, credit heroes. There are two insider strategies that you can use to remove foreclosures from credit reports, and today I'm going to explain how to do each one, so you better stick around. My name is Daniel Rosen, and welcome to Credit Repair Business Secrets. Second only to bankruptcy, foreclosures are the most damaging items that appear on credit reports. They can cause huge drops in credit scores and they have such a bad stigma that many credit creditors won't consider lending to someone with a foreclosure on their record. But that's not the worst part of a foreclosure. A foreclosure on a credit report means that a person or family has lost their home and now their credit has been damaged so badly, they probably won't be able to buy a new home for a very long time. It's a slow and terrible experience and no one should have to go through it, but it happens. So until the mortgage lending system changes, people need to learn how to remove foreclosures from their credit reports. So how does this relate to us? For anyone new to credit repair, a foreclosure is a legal action that occurs when a lender takes possession of a property from a borrower after the borrower fails to keep up with their loan payments. The foreclosure process varies by state, but it typically looks like default, a notice of intent to foreclosure from the lender, the foreclosure filing and a trial, a notice of sale, the sale of the property, and eviction. It's a grueling process that lasts an average of 852 days and it ends with the foreclosure being listed on your credit report for seven years from the date of the first missed payment. According to fico, the impact of a foreclosure depends on what your credit was like before it began. The higher the credit score was, the more room it has to fall, with some scores dropping over 100 points. Now, foreclosure rates did drop to historic lows in 20, 20 and 20 due to the pandemic relief policies. But when those policies ended in 2022, foreclosures dramatically rose 169% with over 248,000 being initiated. There are two types of foreclosures, judicial foreclosures and non judicial foreclosures. And the difference is simply whether or not the courts are involved in the process. About half the states only permit judicial foreclosures, but the other half allows lenders to choose between a judicial and a non judicial judicial process. Now, because judicial foreclosures are filed with the courts, they are considered public records. Public records are different from most negative items that appear on credit reports because the courts don't actually send these records to the credit bureaus. Mortgage lenders report them to the bureaus or the credit bureaus by the records from companies like LexisNexis, which collects the information from public record databases like Pacers. I know this sounds complicated, but all this information changing hands means there's room for error everywhere. And those errors are how you remove items from credit reports. Here's why this is important. When the credit bureaus receive public records from LexisNexis, they often list the furnisher of information as the recorder of deeds, the clerk of the courts, the magistrate, or the municipal court. They do not list the actual furniture. And this amounts to false reporting, which directly violates the Fair Credit Reporting act and provides a perfect reason to dispute the foreclosure. Here's what you need to know. As always, you start the credit repair process by disputing any incorrect information that appears on the credit report. Beyond that, there are two insider strategies for removing foreclosures from credit reports. Here's Strategy one. You dispute the public record. Step one. You sign up for a PACER account. PACER is a public records database that anyone can access for free, and companies like LexisNexis use it to gather our data. I added the PACER signup link over in the show notes. STEP 2. Contact LexisNexis and request a consumer disclosure report. Thanks to the Fair Credit Reporting act, they're required to provide you with a copy for free, and I included the direct link to the report request site over in the show notes. Step three. When you have the PACER account records and the LexisNexis consumer disclosure report, compare the information in bulk and look for any inconsistencies and dispute them with LexisNexis just like you would with a credit bureau because they follow the same rules. If you're able to remove the foreclosure from the LexisNexis report, the odds of getting it removed by the credit bureaus and seriously increases. Step 4. Dispute the foreclosure with the credit bureaus. Do this just as you would any other item. If the bureau verifies the information, move on. Step 5. Send a simple letter addressed to the clerk of the court where the foreclosure was filed. There's no need to get into specifics. Just say something like I have a record from your court appearing on my credit report. I've disputed the item with the credit bureaus Equifax, Experian and TransUnion, all of which confirm the record was verified by you. Please provide the procedure in which you verify records with the credit bureaus and send this letter to the clerk of the court with a self addressed stamped envelope and your return address on it to make sure that it's very easy for them to respond. The clerk of the court should respond with a letter explaining that they do not report to the credit bureaus. Step 6 Make a copy of the letter you received from the clerk of the court and send it to the credit bureaus along with a demand for deletion. It doesn't have to be written exactly the same way, but it should be something along the lines of this I have previously disputed and then insert the public record name and the reference number with you and in response you verify the item is accurate, stating that you have verified the information with the court. I contacted the court and their response is enclosed. It is clear that they do not report to you or any credit bureau for that matter. Therefore, your initial response verifying the item with the court was either an error or a lie. Either way, the reporting requirements do not comply with FCRA section 611, 15 USC section 1681 and the information must be deleted immediately. The bureaus know this law and they understand that they have a potential violation if they don't remove it, so they'll typically respond with a deletion. If the bureau's refuse to delete the foreclosure despite your valid reason for removal, then it's time to file a complaint with the CFPB because you're entitled to fair and accurate reporting. If the foreclosure is removed, you'll be on your way to financial recovery. And if you'd like copies of these public record dispute letters, you can download them free right now@creditrepaircloud.com public-record dispute and here's strategy number two send a qualified Written Request now this is a bit advanced, but credit repair expert and Millionaires Club member Bruce Politano recently shared this proven strategy with me. In the real estate world, there's a letter known as a Qualified Written Request or a qwr. A QWR is a letter that you or someone acting on your behalf can send your mortgage servicer to request information about your mortgage account or to claim that the company has made an error. In this case, you would write a QWR and request all documents related to the mortgage account that was foreclosed, stating that you want to review them for suspected errors. You need to be clear. You want everything. Your servicer must generally confirm it received your letters within five business days and respond with an answer within 30 business days. According to Bruce, you've now requested so much documentation that chances are the servicer is not going to send it. They're either going to ignore you, in which case you can file a CFPB complaint against them, or they're going to remove the record of the account. It's not guaranteed and they may actually send you a ton of documentation, but if they do, you can go through each page to look for inconsistencies and dispute them just like any other piece of incorrect information. And here's my final point. A foreclosure is the second most damaging item that can appear on a credit report. It means someone has lost their home and they won't be able to get a new home for a very long time. And to me, that's totally unacceptable. Disputing a foreclosure may seem slow and complicated, but when it comes to helping people to find a home, we do whatever it takes. And I'll end by saying if you want to learn more top secret credit repair disputing strategies to Check out my interview with Bruce Politano. And if you'd like to get certified in the disputing process and gain confidence and grow your credit repair business, check out our Credit Hero Challenge. Doors are closing soon, so sign up now@creditherochallenge.com and start changing lives.