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Booner was talking about story sharing and I have a journey that is going on for months... With apparently no end in sight. Hope is not too long as I am leaving out a lot.
This started when my landlord called in March and April about buying the house we rent and gave me the number to a mortgage guy he had worked with before. I talked to this guy and got the feeling we had a lot of work to do to qualify. The house we rent needs about 30k of work to make it nice (roof, driveway,basement leaking ,new siding etc.) so it is not really what we're looking for.
In late April my wife finds out that her cousin is wanting to sell her house that used to be their grandmother's. So we decided to see what we could do , on May 2 our credit scores were Me : 565 EQ , 604 TU , 593 EX Wife : 563 EQ , 537 TU , 606 EX and derogs under 1 year. He gave us advice and also got some advice on here so by late June our scores were Me : 655 EQ , 665 TU , 598 EX Wife: 608 EQ , 607 TU , 609 EX.
We found a house that we liked and contacted Quicken Loans would was getting us pre-approved but for so reason unknown they had not run my wife's credit (they did but apparently didn't look at it) and they actually require 620 for purchase and 580 for refinance. By now the first house was under contract.
I called Wells Fargo who took 600 (in theory I find out) and American Financial Resources. We found another house and got an offer in and after Wells Fargo said we were bums it left AFR as the only bullet in the chamber. We have the appraisal , home inspections and the title company working on the deed. Then yesterday (Thurs.) our LO calls and said there was a problem with our DTI because he counted my wife's SSDI as non-taxable and grossed it up and it is taxable based on how we file. Also I can't use 20% of my pay because it is listed as shift pay and I've only been getting it since last August. So he has an idea to put it my name only but includes her income (that won't work, DUH). I ask about paying down debt to qualify and he says he will check on it.
Then today he calls and says we can't pay down debt but maybe we can buy down the interest rate to qualify. He also notices that the property taxes on the appraisal are lower than on our work sheet. His manager said that the property taxes will have to show the lower amount when the title company checks the courthouse. So now we must wait until at least Monday and then because the wife's scores are now 608,612,629 as of 7/11 (under 620) we have to go to "committee" for approval since DTI is over 45 but under 50. This committee turned us down at a higher DTI of 52.4 before he caught the property tax thing. If we were over 620 then under 50% would be approved according to LO.
While all of this is going on the seller has not fixed anything the appraisal said was needed for FHA (will cost roughly $250) approval. She turned down our request to repair thing the home inspection found and a storage building that was encroaching on a neighbor's land was torn down instead of moving it or getting the OK to keep it there as it had been for years. The seller's agent keeps asking our agent if we are trying to get out of the deal whenever we ask about any of the repairs.
Wow, quite an ordeal you're going through. I'm waiting to close on my house on 08/12 and it's been an ordeal. My LO has been wonderful, no hitches, no problems. Score is 680 across the board and DTI is 8%. Sounds good right? Have my horror stories too. Couldn't buy a house. Realtors giving me the runaround, not wanting to show houses, not knowing what they were doing, not presenting my offers. DW was about in tears. Finally got a house, negotiated a price, had the inspection and seller fixed everything. So keep on plugging away, even when you think it's hopeless you will get there. Keep us posted and good luck.
Good Morning! Thank you for telling your story to us! How stressful is all of that anyway? I hope that things turn around quickly in this loan process and you guys get the house. I'm sending out positive energy beams in this post to you and your DW and family!!
Booner
Could you expand on your experience with Wells? Do you have any negatives in the last 12-24 or what was the reason they denied you? What I keep hearing from their retail side is that down to 600 is doable as long as the recent history is clean. Any recent lates or other negatives particularly within the last 12 months will kill it. I'm clean the last 24 but have a lower score due to stuff years ago and higher utilization but our DTI would be acceptable. I'm wondering if it is pointless to go forward with them.
Tombking: In my opinion, it would be better to just pay the utilization down to get over the 620/640 hump. Getting thru automated underwriting makes it easier to ignore the bad stuff. At least from what I've heard.
Wells led me to believe everything was ok because our non-medicals negatives were paid prior to applying . One was from last October so that might have been the nail in the coffin.
Apparently our loan is with the underwriters with AFR but no word yet. I would recommend dealing with someone in person if at all possible. The best person I have dealt with was the guy at our bank who couldn't lend to us but provided some good advice and encouragement.
Just an update , the loan passed committee and is at underwriting , a new credit pull shows DW at 629 (and me at 650) so that may help if needed and opens up possible USDA with her cousin but is cutting it close on time to start a new loan . The seller has finished the repairs and the title company is also getting close as I need to show my old state tax lien was paid and released. May get some news tomorrow,
I'm rooting for you guys!
@Booner72 wrote:I'm rooting for you guys!
Thanks , same back at you.
Daily update:
We are approved but for about $4500 less than we asked for. LO is checking to see if I can buy pointsor if DW's score is higher we can get a better rate or if the total is the top amount we can get. Also after talking to my realtor I am calling my bank back to see if my wife's credit score increase is showing for them and proceed with a USDA attempt . The closing date is 8/12 but if we are progressing towards approval we can get it extended.