Credit event loans: tiers, not waiting clocks.
A bankruptcy, foreclosure, or short sale changes the desk that reads you, not the answer.
Discharge or completion date sets the seasoning tier.
Down payment, reserves, and rebuilt credit move the tier.
We route to desks that price seasoning instead of refusing it.
In short
Key takeaways
- Non-QM desks price a bankruptcy or foreclosure by how far behind you it is: tiers, not fixed clocks, with the big pricing breaks around 24 and 36 months out.
- Earlier entry is bought, not granted. Inside 24 months the down payment starts near 25% and the reserve ask runs 6 to 12 months of PITIA, roughly double a standard non-QM file.
- Compensating factors move real files. Twelve months of on-time rent, proven with canceled checks or a landlord verification, routinely does more for your tier than another 5% down.
- The bridge, buy on non-QM now and refinance toward agency once the clock clears, has honest math on this page. Sometimes renting to the agency date is the cheaper purchase.
Written and reviewed by the Intel Loans, Inc. lending team · NMLS #2858705Updated July 2026
What this desk looks at
The bank said seven years. The non-QM desks said name the tier. Both are telling the truth about their own rulebooks.
Bankruptcy chapter, foreclosure, short sale, each tiers differently.
Time since the event maps to leverage and pricing.
Clean payment history since the event carries real weight.
More down payment moves you up a tier, mechanically.
Compensating factors
What moves a file between tiers
Tier minimums are what a desk quotes when nothing in the file argues for you. Four things reliably argue, and every one of them is paper: bank statements, tradelines, rent checks, a verification form. The table shows what each looks like done right.
The logic is plain from the desk’s side of the table: the event describes your past, and the loan is written into your future. A borrower 18 months out with 12 months of on-time rent and two seasoned tradelines is a different credit than a borrower 18 months out with neither, even though both files show the same discharge date.
Cause counts as well. A desk reads a documented one-time event, a hospitalization with the billing records attached, differently than a slow slide of maxed cards, and on the agency side the same paperwork can invoke the reduced extenuating-circumstances clocks; the chart of record tables them. If your event has paper behind it, put that paper in the file on day one.
| Factor | Why the desk cares | What documented looks like |
|---|---|---|
| Down payment beyond the tier minimum | Equity is the desk's cushion against the history repeating; more down often buys back a pricing notch or an LTV cap | 60 days of statements showing where the funds came from and how long they sat, with any gift papered the way the program requires |
| Reserves after closing | Months of payments in the bank answer the desk's real question: what happens the first time something goes wrong again | 6 to 12 months of PITIA still in your accounts after the down payment and closing costs go out |
| Re-established tradelines | The event explains the past; new accounts paid on time are the only evidence about the future | Two or more open tradelines seasoned 12 to 24 months, with zero lates since the event |
| Housing history since the event | A borrower who paid rent on time through the worst stretch is the profile these programs were written for | 12 months of on-time rent proven with canceled checks or a landlord verification, not cash receipts |
The bridge
Buy on non-QM now, refinance when the clock clears
The most common plan on this page has two legs: buy now on a non-QM loan priced for your tier, then refinance toward an agency loan once your waiting period expires. The months between carry a payment premium and the exit carries closing costs. Both belong on paper before you write an offer.
The second leg is a new full underwrite, not a formality. Your credit gets re-pulled and a new appraisal gets ordered, and nobody can promise from here what either shows. What we can do today is run the exit math: the refinance break-even calculator shows how many months of savings it takes to clear the second closing.
The second closing is not cheap, and in some states the transfer taxes make it more expensive still. In Florida, for instance, documentary stamps on the new note run $0.35 per $100, about $1,260 on a $360,000 refinance, and the intangible tax adds roughly $720; title and lender charges stack on top wherever you close, and the all-in figure commonly lands between $5,000 and $8,000. If the monthly spread you are escaping is thin, the exit can eat the savings, which is exactly what the worked example below is built to test.
The clock is a price
Treat the agency date as a price tag. If the monthly premium plus the second closing outruns your rent over the same months, waiting is the cheaper purchase. We put both columns in writing and let the arithmetic pick the path.
Worked example
Month 18 after a Chapter 7: buy now or rent to the clock
Hypothetical example for illustration only, not a quote or an offer. A family 18 months past a Chapter 7 discharge is shopping at $450,000 in Pasco County, and their FHA clock clears at month 24. We ran both paths over the same window, the 12 months from month 18 to month 30. Payment figures are principal and interest from the quotes under review, plus FHA mortgage insurance where it applies; taxes and homeowners insurance would land on both paths alike and are left out.
The clock is a price, and here it reads $9,580 for owning from month 18 instead of month 24. Principal paydown over the window is within a few hundred dollars between the two loans, so it does not rescue Path B; the gap stands until the market moves it. Unless the same house costs about $9,600 more by month 24, renting to the FHA date was the cheaper purchase, and a family that skips this arithmetic pays for the skip monthly, at $630 a time.
The honest part
What buying inside the clock costs you
You pay tier pricing every month you hold the loan. A file 18 months from discharge prices in a different band than the same file at 36 months, and the desk reads that date on every quote. In the worked example the premium runs $630 a month. The defenses are compensating factors now or the refinance later, and both cost something too.
The bridge has a second closing, and some states tax it hard. In Florida, for instance, note stamps at $0.35 per $100 and the intangible tax put hard numbers on a refinance before title and lender charges join, commonly $5,000 to $8,000 all-in on a $360,000 balance. A thin monthly spread can take years to repay that. The break-even calculator does the arithmetic in a minute.
Sometimes the cheaper answer is not a loan yet. If your FHA date is six months out and your market is flat, the worked example above says renting to the clock wins by nearly $10,000, and we will say so out loud. A brokerage gets paid when a loan closes. That table stays on this page anyway.
How the credit event lane compares
The event costs pricing tier, not years of waiting.
Every clean month since the event works for you.
Season into agency later. The tier map shows when.
From event date to answer
One conversation prices the tier and the wait.
Send the discharge or deed date and the price range you are shopping. We come back with the tier you price in today and the full bridge math against your agency date, in writing, with no hard credit pull.
Pin the dates
The discharge order or the recorded deed sets the date every desk prices from. Send it with the price range you are shopping. Nobody pulls credit at this stage.
We shop the desks
Your event date and compensating factors go in front of the non-QM desks that consider short seasoning. Where each one tiers the same file varies more than borrowers expect, which is the argument for a broker.
Both paths, in dollars
You get the worked example run on your numbers: the monthly premium and the second closing beside the rent column, with the crossover marked.
Close, then watch the calendar
If you buy now, we diary your agency date and re-run the refinance math when the clock clears. The bridge only works if somebody builds the second half.
Adjacent moves
If this isn’t quite your file
Questions we actually get
How soon after a discharge do these programs exist?
Some desks consider files as early as 12 months from a Chapter 7 discharge, a few earlier still, always at materially reduced LTV, commonly capped near 65% to 70%, with deep reserves behind the file. That is a statement about programs, not outcomes: every file remains subject to full underwriting, and short-seasoning files get read harder. By 24 months the field widens, and around 36 months terms sit near the standard grids. The date that counts is the discharge date on the court order, never the filing date.
Can I buy during an active Chapter 13?
Mostly not through non-QM: desks generally want the discharge behind you before they tier a file. The workable routes during an active plan are agency: FHA for most files, and VA or USDA where you qualify for those programs, each after 12 months of on-time plan payments with written court permission, underwritten manually. The trustee will ask how the down payment was saved, and the new housing payment gets tested against the plan. The full path is in mortgage after Chapter 13; bring your plan payment history to the first call.
I have a foreclosure and a bankruptcy on the same file. Which date controls?
It depends on whether the mortgage was discharged in the bankruptcy. When it was, and the file documents it, Fannie Mae lets the underwriter run the bankruptcy clock from the discharge date even if the bank finished the foreclosure years later; the rule lives in the waiting-period chart. Non-QM desks tend to mirror that logic, tiering from the discharge date when the discharge is documented and from the deed date when it is not. Bring the discharge order and the recorded deed; your bankruptcy schedules showing the mortgage was listed settle the argument.
Do extenuating circumstances change any of this?
On the agency side, yes: documented extenuating circumstances, a serious illness or the death of a wage earner under Fannie Mae’s definition, cut most waiting periods roughly in half, and the reduced clocks are tabled in the chart of record. The definitions are narrow, and a market downturn or plain overextension does not qualify. Non-QM desks run no formal exception process because they never ran a fixed clock; the same documentation simply argues for a better tier. If the event has paper behind it, use that paper on both tracks.
When does refinancing later actually clear the premium?
When the monthly spread is wide and the hold is long. In the worked example, a $630 monthly spread against roughly $6,400 in closing costs repays the refinance in about 10 months, and everything after that is savings. It does not clear when the spread is thin or the hold is short, and it does not exist at all if the file cannot qualify for the agency loan when the date arrives, which is why we re-check the file before the second leg rather than after. The break-even calculator runs your version in a minute.
What does re-established credit mean, concretely?
To most desks: two or more open tradelines seasoned 12 to 24 months, zero late payments since the event, no new collections, and 12 months of documented housing history. A secured card plus a small installment account is the standard rebuild, and rent proven with canceled checks or a landlord verification outweighs cash receipts every time. One 30-day late inside the rebuild window costs more than borrowers expect, because it argues the pattern never changed. The month-by-month version is in mortgage after Chapter 7.
Put a price on your clock.
Two dates decide this page: the one on your discharge order and the one on the agency calendar. Send the first, and we will map the second and price the gap, in writing, with 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.
Program availability after a credit event depends on the lender's underwriting of your complete file, including the event's timing, cause, and your re-established credit. Nothing on this page is a commitment or a prediction of approval.
Worked examples on this page are hypothetical illustrations for education, not quotes or offers. Payment figures come from illustrative quotes under review, not from any advertised rate, and your figures will differ.
Tier structures and requirement ranges described here are typical across the non-QM desks we broker to as of mid-2026. Individual lenders set their own matrices and change them without notice; agency waiting periods on this page summarize our waiting-periods chart, which is the authority when they differ.