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It looks like my wife and I are going to make an offer on a Fannie Mae HomePath house that is in the First Look period. We'd be putting 3-4% down and financing FHA. The loan would be under my name/credit only.
Scores from MyFICO are 745 EX, 743 TU, 776 EQ. I'm pretty sure I could push EX or TU past 760 if I brought my CC allocation down from 28 percent to less than 7 percent.
Question: Is there any advantage to doing this, if I'm going FHA. Would my rate be the same with a mid-score of 745 as it would be with one of 760+?
Your rate would stay the same as long as you meet the minimum score requirement which is typically 640. So, if you have a 640 or an 800, same rate.
credit scores affect interest rates. I believe 760 is the score needed to get the best interest rate....but, it may be 720.
Credit scores do not affect interest rates for FHA. Everyone gets the same interest rate as long as they meet the minimum score which is usually 640.
oops...
i'm just noticing that it says 'for FHA'. You know, reading IS fundamental.
My apologies. Credit score directly impacts rates for conventional loans.
@aussiesareforever wrote:
You generally DON'T have to be penalties when you withdraw early from a retirement plan to purchase a home. Check with your financial advisor but I am pretty sure that is the case. You can also get a loan from your 401K that you can pay back
Even if you only put down 5% on a conventional loan, you still save a ton of money in upfront mortgage insurance and lifelong MI.
this is incorrect. The only way to avoid paying the 10% penalty is to put the money in an IRA before you cash it out (or something along those lines)...but even that process has a 10k limit.
If you take a distribution to purchase your home....you pay the penalty.
@basballguy wrote:
@aussiesareforever wrote:
You generally DON'T have to be penalties when you withdraw early from a retirement plan to purchase a home. Check with your financial advisor but I am pretty sure that is the case. You can also get a loan from your 401K that you can pay back
Even if you only put down 5% on a conventional loan, you still save a ton of money in upfront mortgage insurance and lifelong MI.
this is incorrect. The only way to avoid paying the 10% penalty is to put the money in an IRA before you cash it out (or something along those lines)...but even that process has a 10k limit.
If you take a distribution to purchase your home....you pay the penalty.
10 K is a lot of money, it could very well be all the OP needs to make a 20% deposit on his home. And he can always take a loan from his retirement fund and not have to pay the penalty