21 years old and planning to buy a house in the future

[athan12]

I'm 21 years old and I'm planning  to buy a house in the future probably in 5 years or less. Right now I'm preparing everything for me to get approved for a mortgage loan. What should I do right now to help me with my morgage application in the future.

What I have right now.

EQ 619

TU ??

EX ??

(have to check them though)

Only have 1 credit card right now. How many is advisable?

I plan to lower my utilization to 1-9%

3 lates on my 2012 report. I plan to GW them.

What else do I have to be prepared of?

[MzKoli]

@least 3 active trade lines to start. Continue(start) to make payments on time. IMO, Biggest thing start saving $$ as much as you comfortably can. There are lots of other factors(DTI, income, employment,etc) to being qualifiable but 5 years is a very long time ...

[athan12]

Does the dollar loan center count as a credit line? I also had a car loan that I kept paying for only 6 months and paid it in full on my 7th month. I had two loans with dollar loan center and both are PIF

[athan12]

What does DTI mean and can you explain it? Sorry for second post.

[MzKoli]

To maximize scores you'd want active lines - either installment or revolving to build a good payment history. You want something that will sustain the 5 years as accts you've already PD off will be old and have very little if any weight by then

To answer your question abt Dollar Loan Center i'm personally unfamilar. Are they reflected on your CRs? Does applying each time cause a HP?

[MzKoli]

DTI = debt to income ratio its the percentage of what you make that goes toward monthly credit obligations

[athan12]

It shows on my CR like how much I owe and it has the "OK" on top of every month whenever I paid it. No HP though

[MzKoli]

There is front end DTI which calculates your total mortgage payment( principal, interest, taxes, insurance, HOAs, etc) it can't exceed a certain percentage dependent on loan type (conventional, FHA, USDA) and back end which is mortgage plus everything else( student loans,cc,car, etc) and that can't exceed a certain percentage again depending on loan type.