Home Mortgage - Pre-approval

[Anonymous]

Hi,

I'm trying to figure out if we should apply for a home mortgage pre-approval now, or wait a bit longer.  It's myself and my significant other, I'm the one with the spotty credit history (naturally), she's clean as can be.

My TU = 685, EXP = 705, so lets call my TU the middle score.  I have a public record for an IRS Tax Lien (paid), I have an older credit card account with a horrible payment record, multiple +120s, but it was settled back in mid-2006.  I also have a 30 day late from 6-months ago on another CC account.  That's the bad.  The good is that I have a long credit history and maintain a great debt-to-credit ratio.

We've been casually poking around for some time now, but the wife wants to start getting serious so we need to think about getting pre-approved.  I'm still dragging my feet on this because I like seeing that recent 30-day late rolling back in time.  Also, we're going to be looking at some where between a 60-75 percent down payment, so a pretty good LTV and that will also keep us under "jumbo" range.  Solid work history, etc.

So should I anticipate any issues getting pre-approved?  Also, we're still not in a big rush, we could end up taking another 6-months or even more before buying, so how do I minimize any negative credit scoring that might result from going through the pre-approval process?  How long is a pre-approval generally good for?  Or is it variable depending on the mortgage lender?  Can it be extended or locked for an additional fee like a mortgage rate?  Any insight would be welcome.

Thanks!

[Anonymous]

50+% down, low DTI and 680 midscore should make the recent late a non issue, just be prepared to explain why it happened.  As long as youhave had a similiar rent or current mortgage amount to what you are expecting to have when you buy you should be in pretty good shape.  Depending on your amount left over, you may want to consider keeping abit of that cash in savings for reserves.

[ShanetheMortgageMan]

Pre-approvals are usually good for 90 days, which at that point another credit check is required, which you may have to pay for, but there wouldn't be any additional "pre-approval extension fee" or the like.  The impact from an inquiry every 3 months shouldn't be that big, a couple points each time, which you'd recover after a month or two of on time payments.