Hello there Mortgage Seekers-
So my BF and I are in the process of finalizing our mortgage on our place in lovely Portland, OR. My credit is the less glamorous of our two scores- my mid mortgage FICO is 678 (yes, TWO points from the 680 band), while his is 750. So mine is the lower of the two mid scores, thus my credit details are being hashed out.
I'm working with a good, local mortgage broker here in Portland, and he took a close look at my credit report and told me that in his experience the following comments did not kick a loan out of LP (the Freddie Mac automated underwriter): "Dispute Resolved, Customer Disagrees." Long story short, a couple of years back I decided to go on an uninformed credit clean up by disputing all negatives. Well, it has come back to haunt me now. I have three "Dispute Resolved, Customer Disagrees" comments on my report that I must remove in order for the LP software to allow my application to be approved.
The mortgage broker called Freddie Mac to ask why these comments were counting as "disputes" though the accounts were now resolved and paid off. Broker said that in the past, these exact same type of comments had not been counted in the LP software. Answer from Freddie: if the word "dispute" exists in the comments at all, dispite the account being closed or in good standing, then the software will kick the application back.
So, I went on a direct-call-to-the-CRAs binge today to have those comments removed. Here are the results:
Experian: 714-830-7000. Answered immediately, and i asked for the "Excutive Customer Service Team" as Shane The Mortgage Man suggested in his helpful "removing disutes" message. The nice lady who answered told me that Team doesn't exist any longer, but asked if I was calling to remove disputes. I told her yes I was, she looked up my file, and said she would remove the diputes. She said it would take 24-72 hours to show up, and she'd send me a copy of the new report in USPS.
TransUnion: 312-985-2000. Connected to someone in India. I asked for the "Special Handling Department" in the U.S. She asked why I was calling and I told her to remove dispute comments. She looked them up, and then asked if she could put me on hold. She came back and said she could help, but that it would take 30 days. I told her "no good, please transfer me to the "Special Handling Department" in the U.S. I was put on hold, then disconnected. I called back, and this time insisted in the beginning to be transferred to the Special Handling Department in the U.S. Twenty minutes later someone answered. I told her what I needed and that I needed it for a pending mortgage. She removed the comments on the spot.
Equifax: they are only open 9-5, eastern time . So I will cal in the morning.
So far, only about 30 minutes spent, with positive results. Hopefully removing the comments won't hurt my scores, because they were "dispute resolved" anyway, and on two late payments associated wtih car loans long since paidi off. Fingers crossed!
