FHA Loans & underwriting

[Anonymous]

We have been in the process of searching for our perfect home for about 1.5yrs and have been preapproved for an FHA loan since June of '16 (getting it renewed as needed). Our most recent renewal was about 4m ago. We had just been waiting for our lot to open so we could sign contract (we had already be prequalified through their pref lender). On Sat we went in to finalize specs for the house and were told that they changed companies and so we need to switch to the new one now. I sent in all my paperwork yesterday and emailed today to find out where we were, she said they had sent it to underwriting. I'm really confused because the other company didn't do this and neither did the other two companies we were preapproved through last year when we were looking to buy a pre-built house. Should I be concerned that it was sent to underwriting?! Our credit scores are between 620-640, our DTI is well below 28% (I believe it sits at 23% - backend. Front end is like 18%), however we have about $6,000 in medical debt that is older than 3 yrs. We've been advised by ALL of these prior companies to not pay on any of the debt in collections because of the age of the debt. (Please don't suggest be disput or discharge - PIF would be the only option since it IS our debt). What are the chances that the underwriter will approve our application?

[Anonymous]

I would talk to your lender about it. Different lenders have different overlays(requirements). FHA has their minimum guidelines, but lenders could always attach their own guidelines beyond that. 

Our lender told us that FHA doesn't count medical debt, but I believe that is up to a certain amount. I would think that if there was an issue with the medical debt, the new lender would have said something to you before moving it to underwriting.