Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: Hey, it's Randy Miles and it is Take Control Tuesday. We're helping you move from confusion to clarity when it comes to your finances and your future. I'm Randy Miles and today Mansa Musa, my financial educator. I have a question for you. What about renters? Can we finally get credit for our on time payments?
[00:00:23] Speaker B: Yeah. There's a new program, Randy, that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the two big mortgage owners underwriters in the country have started, called Make Rent Count program.
And basically it allows people to finally use their rent history as a positive in qualifying for a mortgage. Wow. It's pretty simple. If a renter applies for a mortgage to a participating lender, now you've got to go to a participating lender and you give them permission to access your bank account data. Fannie Mae technology looks for consistent rent payments of $250 or more going back 12 months.
Now what this does is for the first time, it allows you, if you have a low credit score or no credit score, you use your rent payments as the positive. Wow. The theory being that if you pay your rent on time, you're more than likely to pay your mortgage on time. True.
[00:01:35] Speaker A: So what happens if you miss a payment or you're late for a payment?
[00:01:39] Speaker B: Well, here's the great news. This is the positive program. It doesn't count against you.
[00:01:45] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:01:45] Speaker B: So it won't hurt you, it won't help you either. We don't encourage people to miss rent payments.
[00:01:51] Speaker A: Correct.
[00:01:52] Speaker B: But basically, if you can show that you're consistently paying rents for 12 months, they will use that in evaluating your mortgage application. Now, it's gotta be a payment that shows up on your bank statement.
So you can pay by check, you can use Venmo PayPal. Anything that you can show consistent payment history will work to your benefit.
[00:02:20] Speaker A: That is excellent. Well, what about people who have private landlords or someone who is living with family, but they're still paying and contributing to the rent?
[00:02:30] Speaker B: Well, once again, let's say you and a roommate are sharing the rent, you can declare your portion of the rent and that will work in your behalf.
[00:02:41] Speaker A: Wow.
[00:02:41] Speaker B: So once again, it's about being consistent, being able to show the payment. So whether it's through your bank, through Venmo, PayPal, anything like that, as long as it shows as a debit in your bank statement, then it'll work for your benefit.
[00:02:59] Speaker A: That is incredible. How do you get involved in this? Because this could really open the door for a lot of homeownership.
[00:03:07] Speaker B: Absolutely. Well, the main thing to do is to find a lender that uses the Make Rent Count program. We'll put a link in the show Notes that will give you access to the Fannie Mae website to give you more complete information.
But the good news is you now have another tool or benefit in your arsenal. If you want to pursue home ownership just pay your rent on time out of your bank account and it'll work for you. And hey Randy by the way if you're on Section 8 or anything else, as long as you can prove you're paying your portion of the rent, wow it will still work for you.
[00:03:53] Speaker A: That is such good news and I can't wait to share this on TakeControl Tuesday.com because I can just see people lighting up with this idea of being a homeowner and that's what Take Control Tuesday is all about. We getting that knowledge and turning it into action again. Go to take controltuesday.com get this information and check out our archives as well. Thanks again Manta.
[00:04:18] Speaker B: Thank you.
