Hoping for Mortgage Approval...need advice

[Anonymous]

I recently paid off both of my capital one cc ($200 limit & $500 limit) I am only carrying a $10 balance on each for reporting purposes. 

I have 2 car notes- $337 & $362/mo. both are current now but I do have some lates from this year. I was laid off back in March and didn't really get back on my feel until October. 

Student loans - $55k but in Income Repayment Plan- $109/mo. 

I've pulled my credit reports to make sure everything reporting is correct and it looks to be that way. My concern is how long do I need to wait to apply for a mortgage since I had a string of late payments on both of my car notes during 2015. 

Not sure what my scores are, but after speaking to a lender last week she recommended I pull my scores/report from Credit Karma to check for accuracy on the reporting side of things and to watch my scores from there. 

We currently pay $1350 in rent for an apartment and can certainly find a home with a mortgage the same or less than what we are paying now. My main concern is the lates that are sitting on my credit report and how long I will have to show on-time payments to get approved for USDA or FHA. 

[Anonymous]

A couple of late payments in the last 12 months are not automatic disqualifiers. What has the impact been to your scores due to the lates? If your tri-merge score is low enough the lender may ask for compensating factors (three months of reserves, as an example). I believe it is easier to get the approval if you have 12 months of clear history, otherwise, I think that many lenders will want to do a manual underwrite for pre-approval. Have you been late on your rent at all? I've heard of loans being denied because of late rental payments, especially if the scores are lower than 650/640.