FHA Mortgage... Please share your successes!

[Anonymous]

I just applied for a FHA mortgage yesterday. I started this journey last year at this time with a score of 550. My scores are now 630,612, 616. I've worked so hard this last year at this! Anyway, I have found the perfect house, I am just crossing my fingers my scores are high enough for a FHA loan. Any advice, expereience, or suggestions???

[Anonymous]

Lots of information and knowledge on the Mortgage Loans subforum here ... would highly recommend it. 

Are those scores your Fico 8 scores or your mortgage scores? They're not the same scores. 

As long as you're over 580 you can use the 3.5 percent down program, but the higher your score is, the better rate you'll get. 

Not sure where you live, or where you want to buy, or of course your income situation, but you may want to look into USDA loans as well. I'm in the midst of the USDA process now, tentative closing date is 12/15. 

Good luck! 

[Anonymous]

Thank you! I will check it out there. Those are my creditchecktotal scores. Should I pull my Fico scores from myfico? I thought about it but did not want to waste the $ if they were the same as my creditchecktotal scores. Thank you so much for the reply! 

[Anonymous]

So I pulled my Fico 2 (most commonly used for mortgage) and it is a 599. Will this greatly reduce my chances?? So frustrating, when looking at my Fico scores on My Fico, they are ALL over the place!! Still has my Fico 8 at 617, 619, 630. So if there is other scores for mortgage, vehicle, credit cards... who uses these 3 Fico 8 scores?

[Anonymous]

Well, first off ... I'm far from an expert, so I can't really give you too much in terms of good, sound advice. 

Not to mention, getting a mortgage is about more than just your credit score ... it's income, outstanding debt, monthly debt payments, what kind of derogatories you have on your credit report, etc ... it's an invasive process, and sometimes it feels like your entire financial life is on display. For those of us rebuilding or rebounding, it's especially time consuming, sometimes difficult, etc. Right now, I'm in underwriting, and it feels like this non-stop request from the lender for documents/etc. I feel like one wrong step and I could put the whole thing in jeopardy (though it's probably not that bad, but like I said, when you're rebuilding, you're on edge). 

Again I'd recommend the mortgage section. There are actual home lenders there who will provide you with no BS answers and lots of knowledge. It's an excellent resource. 

As far as scores, which scores do what, etc ... Fico 8, as I understand it, is kind of "the standard" ... it's your "general" score. 

There are mortgage scores, there are vehicle scores, there are scores that are mostly used for credit cards, etc. 

Mortgage versus Fico 8? Mortgage scores take different things into account, so it's hard to say for sure what the difference for you is. In my case, my mortgage scores were really close to my Fico 8 scores, or even a little higher in a couple of cases. 

[CreditScoreChallenged]

Is that your middle mortgage score? Did you pull all 3? If not you will not know where you stand without all 3. That could very well be your lowest score.

[garagebandking]

Congrats on moving forward with rebuilding and planning to buy a home.

You really need all three of your Mortgage Scores and then look at the middle one. When I was going to start the process, I signed up for the credit monitoring here, where you can get all 3 MS.

What is currently keeping your scores down? Perhaps there are short-term things that can be done to get a boost (reduce utilization etc).

A better picture of your credit profile would help everyone offer some insights.

I ended up closing in August on a home through FHA (3.375%). Mid scores at the time was 670ish probably thanks to the student loans I've had for over 10 years. The process was relatively painless aside from the 5 or 6k I had to shell out before and during the process to pay off old debts that I ignored forever (judgments/COs/etc) and that's AFTER a year of credit repair where many things were removed. I think I had something like 20 negatives on each of the 3 CRs in 2014. At the time of Mortgage app in May/June 2016, it was around 3 or 4 negs on each. Now, down to one on EX and one on EQ...both satisfied and due to fall off next year.

Everything now is in the 680-730 range score-wise, so, I know you found the perfect house, but it might not be terrible if things were delayed a bit. Perhaps another 6 months of credit repair could boost your scores and you end up with an easier process/better rate? We couldn't really speculate without more info though.

After you applied, what have you heard?

Good Luck!!

[surferchris]

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@garagebandking wrote:

Congrats on moving forward with rebuilding and planning to buy a home.

You really need all three of your Mortgage Scores and then look at the middle one. When I was going to start the process, I signed up for the credit monitoring here, where you can get all 3 MS.

What is currently keeping your scores down? Perhaps there are short-term things that can be done to get a boost (reduce utilization etc).

A better picture of your credit profile would help everyone offer some insights.

I ended up closing in August on a home through FHA (3.375%). Mid scores at the time was 670ish probably thanks to the student loans I've had for over 10 years. The process was relatively painless aside from the 5 or 6k I had to shell out before and during the process to pay off old debts that I ignored forever (judgments/COs/etc) and that's AFTER a year of credit repair where many things were removed. I think I had something like 20 negatives on each of the 3 CRs in 2014. At the time of Mortgage app in May/June 2016, it was around 3 or 4 negs on each. Now, down to one on EX and one on EQ...both satisfied and due to fall off next year.

Everything now is in the 680-730 range score-wise, so, I know you found the perfect house, but it might not be terrible if things were delayed a bit. Perhaps another 6 months of credit repair could boost your scores and you end up with an easier process/better rate? We couldn't really speculate without more info though.

After you applied, what have you heard?

Good Luck!!

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Congrats on your great progress and on your new home!