Well, back in July I officially began creeping on this forum, and joined here in Sept with dismal credit scores (400s). Now, a mere 6 months later, we are living in our new house. We closed Monday morning. We ended up getting 3.75% interest, 240K loan, and our midscore was 630. I want to thank everyone here for their help in this process, and I want all the newcomers and those who are hoping to buy a home to know that it can be done. It takes a lot of work, and patience, but you can do it. Never give up! Thanks all!
Starting Score: EQ 416 TU 498 EX 468 Lender Fico's July 2012
Cards: Orchard Bank ($1100) | Cap1 Cash Rewards ($2500) | Chase Freedom ($1000) | Best Buy ($2500) | Discover It ($1000) | Barclay Rewards ($2500) | Current scores: EX FAKO: 684, CK TU: 649, FICO EQ: 680, FICO TU: 698, FICO EX: 658 Happy Homeowner Since 2/6/13! 
Last App: 4/5/13 Gardening until July 2014
I called the creditors relentlessly, and got GW deletions on a couple old lates.
I wrote a lot of GW letters, and got some deletions. Not a single PFD worked for me.
I filed disputes on all inaccuracies, even ones with stupid things like wrong dates, etc. I filed and refiled several times.
I also used the CFPB for a couple duplicate accounts that the disputes didn't resolve.
I paid our credit card usage down from 100% to 30%. And I made sure everything was paid on time.
I used Credit Karma, MyFico, Credit Sesame, and Walmart FICO to track everything pretty much daily. I learned when accounts were updated, etc. and watched it all like a hawk.
The major jumps happened early on, and the rest was slow and steady. Good luck!
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