Homebuyer

[jaynokhi]

How long before you could get a mortgage loan after chapter 7 and chapter 13?

[justbroke]

It depends.

I know, that seems like the answer all the time but I can go further.

For FHA, you cannot obtain a new loan within 2 years of a Chapter 7. Technically you can obtain a new FHA loan after one (1) year of good payment history in a Chapter 13, with court and Trustee approval.

For Conventional loans, you must wait 4 years from a Chapter 7, or 4 years from a Chapter 13 dismissal. It's only 2 years from the discharge date of a Chapter 13. There is an extenuating circumstances exception. The circumstances exception is so difficult, it's not even worth mentioning (death of a wage earner, total and permanent disability that caused the bankruptcy). FHA has a similar "extenuating" circumstances exception.

To narrow this down you'll have to determine under which chapter of bankruptcy you will file. At that time you can get into more specifics and narrow your choices. The only real choice is an FHA loan and those have maximum loan value limitations as well as mandatory private mortgage insurance (PMI) requirements.
What's worse is that if there was a foreclosure, then that changes the entire calculus. Conventional loans require 7 years from a foreclosure. FHA has some special exceptions when the foreclosure was "included" in the bankruptcy.

There are also portfolio and other loans (such as hard-money loans and non-qualifying mortgages) that could be available. The portfolio and non-QM loans usually require a bunch of equity and a large downpayment of 20% or more.