Buying a home in Florida with no U.S. credit history

August 28, 2026

You have paid rent on time for years, you have never owed anyone a dollar, and the bank tells you that you have no credit. It feels unfair, because it is: it is not that your credit is bad, it is that you have no file. In the United States those two things are treated very differently.

The good news is that there are written rules, from Fannie Mae and HUD, that say exactly what to do when someone has no score. The bad news is that most loan officers never use them, because it is more work. Here is how it works.

Can you buy a home without a credit history?

Yes. It is not an exception or a favor: it is a path that exists in the guidelines.

It is called nontraditional credit, and it is a file built from the payments you have actually made, even if none of them ever went through a credit card. Lenders can use it when no borrower has a credit score.

What changes is how the file gets evaluated: instead of a computer approving based on a number, a person reviews your whole file. That is called manual underwriting, and it is slower and stricter. But it works.

What is a thin file and why does the bank say no?

A thin file means very little or nothing reported to the credit bureaus. It is common in three situations: people who recently arrived in the country, people who have always handled everything in cash, and young people.

When the bank runs your application through its automated system, the system finds nothing to compare against and returns a denial. That denial does not say “this person is risky.” It says “I have no data.” Those are completely different things, and that is where most of these files are lost: nobody bothers to open the file by hand.

What counts as alternative credit?

The guidelines accept payments you can document for at least 12 months. The strongest ones are housing related:

• Rent. It is the most valuable reference you have, because it is the closest thing to a mortgage payment. Documented with canceled checks, transfers, or a landlord letter along with the bank trail.
• Utilities in your name: electric, water, gas, trash.
• Phone and internet.
• Insurance: auto, renters, life, or medical paid directly.
• Tuition or childcare.
• Payments on a furniture or appliance plan.

Two warnings that are worth money. First: cash with no receipt does not count. If you pay your landlord in cash and there is no paper, that year does not exist to a lender. If you are thinking about buying in the next two years, start paying by transfer or check today.

Second: late payments do show. An alternative file with late payments is worse than no file at all.

What credit score do I need?

It depends on the path, and it helps to separate two very different situations:

If your score is low: conventional programs generally start around 620. FHA goes down to 580 for the minimum down payment, for those who qualify — remember that as of May 25, 2025 FHA is limited to U.S. citizens and lawful permanent residents. ITIN programs typically ask for around 660.

If you have no score: the number stops existing and what matters is the alternative file. There the lender looks harder at three other things: how much you put down, how much is left in the bank after closing, and what share of your income would go to the payment.

No score does not mean no requirements. It means different requirements.

What if I have an ITIN and no Social Security Number?

These are two separate issues that people mix together, and it helps to pull them apart:

• The ITIN determines which loan path is available to you.
• The history determines how strong your file arrives on that path.

You can have an ITIN and good credit. You can have a Social Security Number and no history at all. And you can have an ITIN with no history, which is the most common case, and there is a path for that too.

ITIN programs are portfolio or conventional — they are not FHA, because FHA requires a Social Security Number. They typically ask for a higher down payment than government programs, and several accept alternative credit or credit reports from your home country. It is all laid out in the catalog.

How do I start building credit from zero?

Four things that work, ordered by how fast they show results:

1. A secured card. You deposit an amount and that amount is your limit. It is the fastest way to make a file exist. Use it for something small each month and pay it in full.
2. Being added as an authorized user on the card of a relative with good history. You inherit part of that history without having to qualify yourself.
3. A credit builder loan at a credit union. The money is held and you make monthly payments that get reported.
4. Reporting your rent. Some services report rent payments to the bureaus. Not every lender gives them the same weight, but it helps.

And one that does not work, no matter who tells you otherwise: do not open five cards at once. Every application leaves a mark, and a brand new file full of freshly opened accounts looks worse than a small, tidy one.

How long does it take?

For a score to exist you generally need at least one account open six months or more and recently reported. So in half a year you can go from “no score” to “has a score.”

For that score to be good, count on 12 to 24 months of on-time payments.

But here is the part almost nobody tells you: you may not have to wait at all. If you already have 12 months of documentable rent and utilities in your name, your alternative file may be ready today. It is worth having someone review it before you decide to wait two years.

What to do now

Gather what you already have: 12 months of rent proof, and two or three utilities in your name with their payment history. That is enough to tell whether your file has a path.

Then look at the program catalog and pick the ones that sound like your situation. Leave us your phone number and we will tell you on the first call whether it makes sense to apply now or build for six months first. If the honest answer is to wait, we will say so.

Sources

• Fannie Mae Selling Guide — nontraditional credit history and borrowers without credit scores
• Freddie Mac Selling Guide — files with no credit score
• HUD, Single Family Housing Policy Handbook 4000.1 — nontraditional credit references
• HUD, Mortgagee Letter 2025-09
• Consumer Financial Protection Bureau — building credit history

This article is informational and is not an offer or a commitment to lend. Program requirements change and what applies to your case is subject to credit approval. Infinity Wholesale Mortgages, LLC, Company NMLS #2420223. Equal Housing Opportunity.