Until 2008 those who had less than stellar credit could still find someone to give them a mortgage. Many of these bad credit mortgages were considered the reason for the economic crisis in late 2008. There are still many of these mortgage lenders out there but thanks to the near collapse of the housing market they are harder to find.

Even though mortgages for people with bad credit are fewer and farther between there are ways for a person to obtain a bad credit mortgage. For starters you need to know where you stand on your credit score. Getting a copy of your credit report, which is free by the way, will give you some idea as to where you are at and who is reporting on you.

You need to get current and stay current on all your bills to raise your score. Even if you are current on all your bills you might find that your score is low due to too many items being reported. Multiple credit lines, such as credit cards, personal loans, or car loans, can actually hurt your credit score.

If it is simply too many lines of credit making it hard to obtain even a bad credit mortgage see about consolidating some of those lines and then closing the accounts of the consolidated lines so that you have fewer items on your credit. It might raise your score enough to get a mortgage.

If you can save enough money for a good down payment on your bad credit mortgage. This will help you lower your mortgage payment and in many cases your interest rate. In the past many mortgage lenders would still offer a second mortgage to those with bad credit to cover the cost of a down payment and while they might do so again in the future, now it is not a real option.