Hello, love this forum! On May 1, we'll be starting construction on our new dream home. We're very excited. However, this Spring will be full of inquiries for me, so I'd appreciate any advice and/or input on how best to manage the order of these events, and even what you think the score implications will be.
My scenario:
1. My current FICO scores all in 720s. Verified this by my loan officer a couple weeks ago. I have 2 inquiries on each CRA, and pretty low utilization overall (~30%)
2. In order to secure financing for my home, I was told by the bank that my middle FICO score needs to be 680. They will pull credit once for pre-approval in June and again when we close in December. This will be an end loan, not a construction loan... so my mortgage won't begin until I'm moved in. This will also be a Jumbo mortgage. Not sure if that matters or not. Hopefully not.
3. I currently own my home outright, and will be getting a HELOC for about 225K in order to use as the down payment of my new mortgage. This way I wont have to sell and move while we're building. My curent house will sell quickly, I have no concerns about this. I was told by the bank I'd have to have a 680 score to qualify for this, too.
4. I have two car leases that are set to expire in June 2012. This sucks. If you've made it this far, then congratulations. Here's my conundrum/plan: 1. I'm planning on pre-approving for my mortgage and getting my HELOC the week of April 9. This is from two different banks, and for two different loans, so I'm guessing this will be two hard inquiries, and one new trade line. 2. I'm planning on leasing two more cars in May 2012, this will hopefully just count as 1 inquiry, but 2 new trade lines. I'm hoping the six month gap between the new auto leases and closing on my house in December will make up for the drop in my FICO score. Is this hope realistic?
My other option would be to rent a car for myself and my wife for six months. I don't know... I'd hate to have a mortgage fall through on account of stupid cars. How much will these (potentially four) new inquiries and (three) new trade lines effect my score? Am I screwed? Any ideas? THANK YOU FOR YOUR HELP IN ADVANCE!!!
