Mortgage Loans

[FICOisa4letterword]

Hi there,

I hope you don't mind but I broke your post into paragraphs which makes it much easier to read. A post consisting of a single, large block of words will often be passed over by readers and that might cause the loss of excellent advice or suggestions.

MarineVietVet, myFICO moderator

---

Thanks in advance to any and all for taking your time to share wisdom and advice with some rookies. My husband and I are currently rebuilding our credit after a job loss 7 years ago that almost ruined us. We got out of a debt consolidation program in late 2010 and are now in a position to save money to buy our first home. Our scores are rising as we recently had some old baddies fall off and we have completely paid off our credit cards this month after a long period of time with high utilization (we didn't realize until last month this was hurting us).

Only one card has reported since we paid them off, so we are hopeful we will get a nice bump in the next few weeks. Here are our current known scores: Me: TU 652 on 3/16, EX PLUS (FAKO) 629, EQ 607 3/15 DH: TU unknown, EX PLUS (FAKO) 591, EQ 628 on 3/15 According to the estimator tools on myFico and Experian, we should be in the 650 - 710 range within 3 months. We are certainly praying that is true. But now, after reading so many of the threads in the myFico forums, it seems like we can't really go by the scores we see at all because what the lenders pull are different?!?! The Experian score is a FAKO and there is nowhere we can buy the real one...The TU score uses an old model the lenders no longer use....

Even the mortgage person we are thinking of using (for an FHA loan) told us our scores may be higher when she pulls them because she excludes medical collections and those are the only 2 collection accounts we have ($250/each. More than 2 years old, didn't even know about them until we joined myFico last Month.) So how are we supposed to know when our midscore makes it safe to apply? Obviously we don't want to apply too early and risk an extra inquiry if we aren't ready. We would rather be sure or at least PRETTY sure our scores are good before we let her pull them.

Also, we are thinking of building a home with a 120-150 day build time. Do we have to have all our down payment and reserves in savings when we go to get pre-approved or can we continue to save that while the house is being constructed? The builder requires $3K down and we will have that plus another $3K saved by June. That's when we would like to start the build and then continue to save while they build the house, as the neighborhood we want to be in is running out of lots! We could save another 8-10K before closing as we are saving 2K a month now. Is that possible, or do we need it all upfront? Again, thanks for any advice!

[germaine47]

The first thing I  tackled was the collections no matter if they are medical are not they do drag down your scores, I would suggest a PFD and it takes approximately 30 days to update with the CRA's.  That a lone will give you a good boost in your FICO Scores.  Equifax Monitoring Services Fico is exactly what my lender pulled ( 644), Credit Karma and True Credit Scores was 690 FAKO but the Lender Pull was 695, the Experian Plus Score( 669) and Lender Pull (646).  

I was highly shocked that at least two of the sites was pretty much what my lender pulled, Look for the site that says exactly Fico,   My True Credit and Equifax is worth every penny that I have spent.   If you can gain 32  points with  Equifax  your  Middle  Score will be 640 that helped me lock a 3.875% rate. I sent copies of my credit file to my Broker without having them pull my FICO to see if I was on the right track. Call Mortgage Broker or Loan Officer to see if the Mid Score is 620 or 640, you may be closer than you think.

[FICOisa4letterword]

MarineVietVet: Thank you for cleaning up the post! There is some issue posting from an iPad....it seems to strip out the paragraph breaks. Germaine: Thanks for the quick reply. The Equifax and Transunion scores are real FICOs via myFico. Going to check out TrueCredit, per your suggestion, once I know those other credit cards have reported. Your interest rate is great! Congrats!

[MarineVietVet]

---

FICOisa4letterword wrote:
MarineVietVet: Thank you for cleaning up the post! There is some issue posting from an iPad....it seems to strip out the paragraph breaks. Germaine: Thanks for the quick reply. The Equifax and Transunion scores are real FICOs via myFico. Going to check out TrueCredit, per your suggestion, once I know those other credit cards have reported. Your interest rate is great! Congrats!

---

Yes that seems to be a recurring problem that is being looked at.

[Booner72]

The lender might ignore those medical collections, but your FICO score won't.  A collection is scored the same no matter what it's source is.

I don't know much about building - but I know of a lot of posters here who are very far into the building process and are scrambling to get their scores and everything where it needs to be to be able to close.  Personally, I would never do that to myself, it would be too stressful.  I would get everything in order at the time I got the build going.  imagine, all that time and money and energy lost if you couldn't get the loan.

Good Luck and congratulations and coming back after 7 years of bad financial times!!

[FICOisa4letterword]

Thought I should update here, as well, to say that we were pre-approved today and the myFICO estimator WAS right. Midscore lender pull today was 710. We are so thankful to God and the good folks on these forums for all the encouragement!

[firsttimemama]

Congrats! I love to hear success stories! Makes me feel more hopeful!

[webhopper]

---

FICOisa4letterword wrote:

Thought I should update here, as well, to say that we were pre-approved today and the myFICO estimator WAS right. Midscore lender pull today was 710. We are so thankful to God and the good folks on these forums for all the encouragement!

---

Congratulations  

[FICOisa4letterword]

Keep hope alive, firsttimemama. My starting score was in the low 500's - today the lender pulled a 710 midscore.  

[firsttimemama]

---

FICOisa4letterword wrote:

Keep hope alive, firsttimemama. My starting score was in the low 500's - today the lender pulled a 710 midscore.  

---

Awesome and CONGRATS! I'm plugging away and doing everything I can (i.e., that I have control of). I'm waiting for two promised GW adjustments to be deleted. And hoping my GW letters to my last baddie will find the right person! I've seen signficant changes in my score already. So, I'm feeling fairly hopeful

Congrats again!