In short
Key takeaways
- The during-plan door: 12 months of on-time plan payments plus trustee approval opens FHA, VA, and USDA while the case is still active. Conventional stays closed until the case ends.
- Discharge versus dismissal changes everything on the conventional side: 2 years from a discharge, 4 years from a dismissal. See the full waiting-period chart for every event.
- Chapter 13 stays on the credit report 7 years from filing, versus 10 for a Chapter 7, so the public record often falls off around the time conventional opens.
- Non-QM programs can close as soon as 1 day after discharge, at larger down payments, often through bank statement or DSCR structures.
Written and reviewed by the Intel Loans, Inc. lending team · NMLS #2858705Updated July 2026
The clocks
The Chapter 13 clocks, program by program, mid-2026
Verified July 2026 against Fannie Mae Selling Guide B3-5.3-07, FHA Handbook 4000.1 (II.A.4.b.iii), the VA Lender's Handbook chapter 4, and USDA HB-1-3555 chapter 10, the same sources behind our master waiting-periods chart. The Chapter 7 version of this page lives at mortgage after Chapter 7.
| Program | During an active plan | After discharge | After dismissal |
|---|---|---|---|
| FHA | Eligible after 12 months of on-time plan payments, with written court or trustee permission; manual underwrite | No additional waiting period under 4000.1; recent discharges are underwritten manually with extra scrutiny | No fixed period; underwriter judgment on the whole file |
| VA | Eligible after 12 months of on-time plan payments plus trustee approval | No additional waiting period for a completed plan | No fixed period; underwriter judgment |
| USDA | Eligible after 12 months of on-time plan payments plus trustee approval | Case by case; commonly treated as clear within about a year of discharge, per HB-1-3555 credit analysis | Treated as significant derogatory within 36 months |
| Conventional (Fannie Mae) | Not allowed during the plan | 2 years from the discharge date, per B3-5.3-07 | 4 years from the dismissal date, per B3-5.3-07 |
| Non-QM | A few programs lend during the plan; most wait for discharge | As soon as 1 day after discharge, at larger down payments and a pricing premium | Program tiers, commonly 12 to 24 months from dismissal |
During the plan
Buying while the case is open is a permission problem, then a paperwork problem.
The guideline math is simple: 12 on-time plan payments and written permission. The execution has four moving parts, and the order matters. Talk to your bankruptcy attorney before you talk to anyone about a house, because the motion to incur debt is theirs to file, and a purchase contract signed before the court signs off is a contract you may not be allowed to keep.
Get the trustee or court letter first
New debt during an active Chapter 13 needs approval from the bankruptcy court or trustee, depending on your district's practice. Your bankruptcy attorney files a motion to incur debt; the order or trustee letter that comes back is a required document in the loan file. No lender can close around it.
Show the new payment fits the plan budget
The trustee's question is whether a mortgage payment fits alongside the plan payment without starving either one. Expect to show your schedules, your plan payment history, and a budget where the proposed housing payment replaces rent rather than adding to it.
Expect a manual underwrite on FHA
An active Chapter 13 cannot receive an automated approval, so a human underwriter works the file against FHA's manual rules: verified 12-month payment history on the plan, verified housing history, documented compensating factors, and tighter debt-to-income treatment.
Source the down payment cleanly
The trustee will ask where the down payment came from, because money available for a down payment is money that could have gone to creditors. Savings accumulated from post-petition income, documented gifts, and retirement loans all have clean answers. Undisclosed windfalls do not.
After discharge, program by program
A discharge from a completed Chapter 13 is the strongest ending a bankruptcy can have, and the guidelines treat it that way. FHA imposes no additional waiting period after a Chapter 13 discharge under Handbook 4000.1; a recent discharge typically routes the file to a manual underwrite, which is slower and stricter but not a wait. VA reads a completed plan the same generous way. USDA is more case-by-case, commonly comfortable within about a year of discharge under its credit analysis rules.
Conventional is the program with a real clock: 2 years from the discharge date under Fannie Mae B3-5.3-07, and the file must also show re-established credit, not just elapsed time. If the case was dismissed instead, the wait stretches to 4 years from the dismissal date, though a documented extenuating-circumstances package can shorten a dismissal wait to 2 years. The exception rules and every other credit event live on the waiting-periods chart.
Below all of the agency clocks sits the non-QM market. Portfolio programs price recency rather than banning it, and the most aggressive tiers will lend as soon as 1 day after a Chapter 13 discharge with compensating factors: down payments commonly 20% to 30%, meaningful reserves, and a pricing premium over agency loans that shrinks as the discharge ages. The tier structure and the buy-now-refinance-later math live in recent credit event loans. For self-employed borrowers, bank statement programs pair that seasoning flexibility with deposit-based income documentation; for investors, DSCR programs qualify on the property's rent and often carry the most flexible seasoning tiers of all.
The rebuild
The Chapter 13 credit rebuild starts from a better place than you think.
A Chapter 13 file shows something a Chapter 7 file cannot: years of documented, court-supervised payment history. Underwriters read a completed plan as evidence you pay under pressure. Three things turn that into a mortgage-ready report.
First, rescore after discharge: scores typically begin recovering during the plan and step up again once the discharge posts, and the public record itself falls off 7 years from filing. Second, open one or two small tradelines, a secured card and a credit-builder account, as soon as your case status allows. Third, audit the report about 60 days after discharge. The classic Chapter 13 errors are discharged debts still showing balances, accounts marked late during the plan while the trustee was paying them, and the case reported as dismissed rather than discharged. Dispute each in writing with the discharge order attached; these are the errors that quietly add years to a file that has already served its time.
Refinancing an existing mortgage during Chapter 13
The during-plan door swings both ways. If you own a home inside an active Chapter 13, a refinance is possible with the same court or trustee approval a purchase needs, and it is sometimes the move that ends the case early. Where the home has enough equity, a payoff refinance pulls cash out to satisfy the remaining plan balance in one transaction: the court approves the new debt, the trustee is paid from closing, and the discharge follows the completed payoff rather than waiting out the remaining plan years.
Underwriting treats it like any during-plan loan: FHA or VA paper, manual underwrite, 12 months of clean plan payments, and the trustee's numbers reconciled to the penny on the closing statement. Whether it beats simply finishing the plan depends on your equity and how many plan years remain, arithmetic we will put in writing before you decide. Your bankruptcy attorney should bless the structure before anything is filed.
Worked timeline
A January 2024 filing, played forward
A hypothetical borrower files Chapter 13 in January 2024 with a confirmed 5-year plan. Here is every door and the date it opens:
| Date | Milestone | What it means for the file |
|---|---|---|
| January 2024 | Chapter 13 filed; 5-year plan confirmed | Plan payments begin. Every on-time payment from here is underwriting evidence. |
| January 2025 | 12 on-time plan payments complete | The FHA, VA, and USDA during-plan doors open, subject to court or trustee permission and a manual underwrite. |
| 2025 to 2028 | Plan continues | A purchase during these years stays possible with permission. Conventional remains closed until discharge. |
| January 2029 | Plan completed; discharge entered | FHA and VA carry no additional wait. Non-QM programs can lend as soon as the discharge is entered. The Fannie Mae 2-year clock starts today. |
| January 2031 | 2 years from discharge | Conventional eligibility begins under B3-5.3-07, assuming re-established credit and the score to support it. |
| January 2031 | 7 years from filing | The same month, the Chapter 13 falls off the credit report entirely, 7 years from the filing date. A 5-year plan means the record clears just 2 years after discharge. |
Dates assume plan payments begin at filing and stay current throughout. A dismissed case rewrites the table: the conventional clock becomes 4 years from the dismissal date, and the during-plan doors close.
The decision
Which door fits your file
Your 12 months of plan payments are spotless, the mortgage payment replaces rent at a similar number, your attorney and trustee support the motion, and you can live with a slower manual underwrite. FHA, VA, and USDA are the doors; conventional is not.
The plan has a year or two left, your budget is already tight against the plan payment, or the trustee approval looks contested. A completed plan ends in discharge, and discharge opens FHA and VA immediately with far less friction.
You are freshly discharged, conventional is 2 years away, and you have 20% or more to put down plus reserves. Self-employed borrowers can pair this with a bank statement program; investors with a DSCR program. Price the premium honestly before committing.
What each path honestly costs
None of these doors is free. A during-plan purchase means a manual underwrite: slower, more paper, tighter ratios, and a debt-to-income calculation carrying the plan payment and the new housing payment at once, which is exactly why trustees scrutinize the budget. Non-QM's 1-day-out programs charge for the calendar: expect 20% to 30% down where FHA takes 3.5%, reserves of 6 to 12 months, and a pricing premium that only fades as the discharge ages. And sometimes the honest answer is that finishing the plan first is the right move: a discharge earns the short clocks, ends the plan payment's claim on your ratio, and arrives with the cleanest file you will ever hand an underwriter. The point of the map is to price all three paths against your dates, not to push you through the earliest door.
Why a brokerage
We read the court record before we quote a path.
Chapter 13 files fail on dates and documents, not on the bankruptcy itself. As a brokerage we start with your discharge or dismissal order, your plan, and your payment history from the trustee, then match the file against every during-plan, agency, and non-QM program on our board. You get the doors that are actually open, in writing, before anyone touches your credit.
Questions we actually get
Can I buy a house during my Chapter 13 without trustee permission?
No. A mortgage is new debt, and new debt during an active Chapter 13 requires approval from the bankruptcy court or trustee. Your attorney files a motion to incur debt, and the resulting order or letter goes in the loan file. Skipping this step risks the loan and, worse, your case.
Does the waiting period run from my filing date or my discharge date?
From the end of the case, never the filing. Fannie Mae measures 2 years from the discharge date or 4 years from the dismissal date. The one place the filing date matters is credit reporting: the Chapter 13 falls off the report 7 years from filing.
What happens if my case converts from Chapter 13 to Chapter 7?
The converted case is underwritten as a Chapter 7, so the longer Chapter 7 clocks apply from the Chapter 7 discharge date: 4 years for conventional, 2 for FHA and VA, 3 for USDA. Our Chapter 7 guide walks that window month by month. If your history shows more than one bankruptcy within 7 years, Fannie Mae extends the conventional wait to 5 years.
Can I assume a mortgage during Chapter 13?
An assumption is still new debt to you, so it needs the same court or trustee approval as a purchase loan, and the servicer must separately approve you under the note's assumption terms. It can work, particularly on assumable FHA and VA notes, but it is two approvals, not zero.
Does my plan payment count in my debt-to-income ratio?
Yes, while the plan is active. The monthly Chapter 13 payment is a debt like any other, so a during-plan purchase has to qualify with both the plan payment and the new housing payment in the ratio. After discharge the plan payment disappears from the calculation.
How long does Chapter 13 stay on my credit report?
7 years from the filing date, versus 10 years for a Chapter 7. Because a 5-year plan consumes most of that window, many borrowers see the public record fall off just 2 years after discharge, which is also when conventional opens. The two clocks converging is one reason discharged Chapter 13 files recover faster than people expect.
Twelve payments in? The first door may already be open.
Send us your filing date, plan status, and discharge date if you have one. We'll map every program, during the plan and after, with the date each opens. No hard credit pull.
This is not a commitment to lend or an offer of credit. All loan approvals are subject to credit review, underwriting, and property evaluation. Programs, terms, and conditions are subject to change without notice.
Intel Loans, Inc., NMLS #2858705. Licensed in Florida. Verify our licensing at nmlsconsumeraccess.org. Equal Housing Opportunity.
Waiting periods and program figures on this page summarize agency guidelines as of July 2026 (Fannie Mae Selling Guide B3-5.3-07, FHA Handbook 4000.1, VA Lender's Handbook, USDA HB-1-3555) and can change without notice. Individual lenders may apply stricter overlays. Timelines are hypothetical examples, not quotes or offers.
Bankruptcy guidance on this page is general education about mortgage eligibility, not legal advice. Incurring new debt during an active Chapter 13 case requires court or trustee approval; consult your bankruptcy attorney before signing a purchase contract or loan application while your case is open.