Credit Repair & Homeownership Reality Check: Part 2 with Holly Cross

In Part 2 of our series with Holly Cross from CMG Home Loans, we tackle one of the biggest concerns for future homeowners: credit. What if your credit score is less than ideal? What if it’s downright terrible? Don’t worry—we break down exactly what that means, what steps you can take, and how we can still help you work toward buying a home. From Credit Karma confusion to real talk about financial responsibility, this episode is filled with practical tips, tough love, and real-life examples that prove homeownership is still possible—even with bad credit. Tune in as we debunk myths, talk strategy, and share what it really takes to rebuild and move forward.

Episode Transcript

(00:02):
podcastthe show that brings you timely
insightsessential tips and everything
youneed to know about mortgages it's
timeto get informed get inspired and
get moving with your host Steve
Rockefellerbecause here your favorite
mortgageguy has your back hey guys it's
your favorite mortgage guy Steve
Rockefellerhere with CMG Home Loans and
another edition of Your Favorite

(00:25):
MortgageGuy podcast you know I've got
HollyCross with CMG Home Loans with me
andyou want to know something this is
episodetwo we're going to demystify
homeownership we're going to give you
somehacks but listen we're going to
jumpright into it with the one thing
thatpeople are worried about and that
iswhat if I have the crappiest credit

(00:46):
onthe planet holly does that stop me
frombuying a house no it does not so
whenpeople come in first of all the
firstthing they do is they go "But my
CreditKarma says I'm at a 920 credit
scoreor my bank statement says I'm at
an860 or whatever says I'm this." Are

(01:08):
wegoing to use that credit score no
thatis not the credit score that we go
by
okayhaving said that let's dive right
intonow I got a credit score that's
likea 490 a 504 what steps do I have to
door what steps can you help the
clientsdo to get them ready for home
ownershipbecause guys at the end of the

(01:29):
day typical minimum credit score
620we can work with you if it's a
littlebit less but you got to put in
thework too i mean we can't do it for
youyou have to put in the work so
havingsaid that what should they do
that'sa great um it all depends Steve
onwhat is showing on your credit and I
thinkthat's where um you know we take a
looksometimes it's very simple easy

(01:51):
thingslike paying down some revolving
debtor getting removed as an authorized
useron a card so I think you know
there'seasy ways and there's easy fixes
whichyou and I can very easily guide a
clientthrough um but I think if it's
beyondthat and it's a lot of derogatory
itemsum especially if that's all you
haveon there uh then we may need to
takeit a step further and refer a

(02:14):
clientout to credit repair um but I
thinkit's it's always doable and it
shouldn'tscare you out of even starting
theprocess with a loan officer credit
repair you
know I get the same emails that
everybodydoes about you know because we
getthe spam emails is credit repair

(02:36):
freeno no and it's you know it usually
ifyour credit score is in the high
foursor low fives it took a while to
getthere so it is going to take a
littlebit of time and some hard work to
repairit um so I think if you're
seriousabout that you're willing to
spenda little money and put in the hard

(02:57):
workinvest invest yes so guys did you
hearwhat she just said she was very
niceand said it took a little while to
getthere to get your 400 credit score
noI'm going to hit you with you didn't
payyour bills it's just that simple you
didn'tpay your bills that's why you got
afreaking 400 credit score so here's
whatI'm going to say it's not your
faultit's not your fault it's okay

(03:20):
we'llbe nice okay maybe you weren't
makingenough money and you were trying
to make ends
meetmaybe you had a circumstance a
deathan illness a divorce or something
happenedthat's acceptable but if you
justdecided that you want to keep up
withthe Joneses and not pay your bills
andgo buy the latest model car and go

(03:43):
haveall this credit and just ignore the
mailand the emails and the phone calls
thatcome in that's on you listen I like
itbecause the person that cuts my hair
hasa sign up there and it says "Honey
it'sa blow dryer it's not a magic
wand."We don't have magic wands as

(04:04):
lendersbut what I will tell you is this
ifyour credit is in the toilet and you
wantto move into the next phase of your
life honestly we can help you
butyou have to invest the $5 $600 that
it'sgoing to take and it's easy to do
andyou know Holly I want to give this
liveexample i literally have a closing

(04:26):
today with this guy
guyhad some problems in his life early
onhe found the right woman she whipped
himinto shape it took a couple years he
hasa set of twins and he wants to buy a
househe didn't pay anybody and so when
wepulled his credit he had a bunch of
stuffon there fortunately he had a

(04:48):
greatgrandfathergreat isn't nice
grandfatherthat said "You know what i'm
85years old it's time for me to give
back."And the grandfather called me and
said'How can I help?' So we got the
grandfatherto pay off all the bills we
hadthe credit rescored guy's closing
todayon his house yeah he literally
sentme a text and said "Thank you."
Yeahand you know what the best part

(05:10):
aboutthat is listen we all have changes
inour life right so we do what we've
gotto do okay from Let's keep up with
AndI I do think that just to add Steve
Ido I do believe that sometimes some
badfinancial things can happen to very
goodpeople so I I don't think that it's
necessarilyyou know we're not judging
wehave a lot of grace and we're here to

(05:31):
helpthat's right so I think people are
sometimesself-conscious about it or
don'twant to face it but part of fixing
itis addressing it and and looking at
itso have you ever had somebody that
calledyou and said "Oh I think my
credit'shorrible i don't even know
whereto start." And then you pulled
theircredit and you were like "Wow
there'snothing wrong." Yeah yeah and
andthat's that's a bonus right right we

(05:52):
don'tsee that all the time but when it
happensit's under your grace it's it's
verygraceful to have somebody like that
well and I think that's another
misconceptionis I think there's people
outthere that are waiting to have their
creditperfect similar to waiting for
ratesto come down waiting to have their
creditperfect before they buy a house
andtheir credit is fine and they're
missingan opportunity because they're

(06:14):
strivingper for perfection with their
creditso under the heading perfection
whatwhat is a perfect credit score do
weeven know anymore no I don't think
they'reYeah yeah and I think it depends
onyour loan what loan type you're
getting you know there's lots of
differentum scenarios surrounding
creditso so you get a loan and you get
aloan and you get a loan and you get a

(06:36):
loan is that how we do it no
okayas long as you qualify you get the
loanyou have to have the credit score
butyou know one thing I want you to
know from Holly and I is
thiswe want everybody to get a loan
listenat the end of the day you can't
geta home loan without our help now if

(06:58):
Ican't help you find a house because
I'mnot a licensed real estate agent so
let me ask you this does
creditor credit scores does that affect
aninterest rate yes yes and more so
withspecific loan programs okay um but
yes I would say to get for a
conventionalloan to have a to get the
idealrate you do need to have a higher

(07:19):
credit score perfect
allright guys listen you know we talked
aboutcredit we didn't mean to punch you
in the face with the with the
informationbut you already know we
neededto do it you needed to hear it so
I'myour favorite mortgage guy on your
favoritemortgage guy podcast and we
justdebunked a lot of the credit issues
havea great day thanks for tuning in
makesure to follow your favorite

(07:40):
mortgageguy on Facebook LinkedIn and
Instagramhave questions or ready to
takethe next step reach out at steve
mloans.com or call
757301-9776we'll catch you next time