Maaan i hate rejection

[Anonymous]

Hello everyone,

Will give a short background. I was decimated by a divorce several years ago, ended up homeless, jobless and sleeping in my truck. I fought my way back, and have been employed in my current postion for 9 years now, with a yearly rate of 85-90k a year ( very good wage for the area i live in) the home i am looking at is on a acre with 4 br 2.5 baths, 2 car shop for 100k. Home prices in my area are really in the gutter..

I have been renting for the last 10 years, and paying cash for anything i needed. Which of course put me in the (Can't give you credit, because you have no credit) loop.  I pulled a credit report from transunion about a year ago and it rated me 585. I had a couple medical bills/student loans that were hitting me pretty hard. I have paid them off, and i went to my companies credit union to see about a small loan (2000.00) so that i could begin a credit history, which i have made timely payments on now for 6 months of a 12 month loan.

Transunion today gives me a 695 credit score, and it seems to go up a tad every month i make a payment to my credit union.  I have the goal of purchasing a home. I have been watching interest rates, and housing prices plumet for quite a while now, and have the feeling that if i do not move quick i am going to lose out on this place.

A current TU credit report shows:

2 medical bills as "Seriously past due" even though they have a 0 balance/have been paid off. No other negative items on my report.

1 account " Accounts comprised of fixed terms with regular payments" (my loan with the credit union, positive account)

And that's the end of my TU credit report.. Less than exciting i suppose. I just got rejected by citigroup for a credit card, reason was "No revolving accounts". I don't really care to actually have a credit card, but thought it would help my cause of raising my rating.

Down to the real reason for my post.

I hate rejection. I literaly start to have a panic attack when i think about being rejected for a mortgage, I would be totaly crushed. I have not talked to anyone about a mortgage yet out of fear. And i don't really know where to start that process anyways... I would also only have about 5% to put down on a house.

So my question after the wall of text.. Given my situation, would it be worth my time to start the process of looking for a mortgage lender. Or should i wait a few more months till my credit score is over 700. Is a little over 700 even good anymore? I've read that they raised the bar quite a bit when applying for a mortgage now.

I await your advice, i certainly have no experience in this area.

[Scope27]

Call a loan officer and see what they specifically require you to have credit wise because you are a cash buyer.  I app'd in November with three credit card accounts that were no older than 5 months old.  Before that I had horrible history (excluding student loans that went into repayment in 2008) but my last negative was older than 2 years ago.  Do you know what loan product you may be interested in (Conventional, FHA, or USDA)?  If you feel like you want credit card history try going with a secured product from a major bank that will graduate the card without reapping.  How long ago was your app with Citibank?  If it was recent check to see if the credit card forum has a backdoor number where you may request a reconsideration of application.

[namvet]

---

@Scope27 wrote:

Call a loan officer and see what they specifically require you to have credit wise because you are a cash buyer.  I app'd in November with three credit card accounts that were no older than 5 months old.  Before that I had horrible history (excluding student loans that went into repayment in 2008) but my last negative was older than 2 years ago.  Do you know what loan product you may be interested in (Conventional, FHA, or USDA)?  If you feel like you want credit card history try going with a secured product from a major bank that will graduate the card without reapping.  How long ago was your app with Citibank?  If it was recent check to see if the credit card forum has a backdoor number where you may request a reconsideration of application.   +1   Contact a good mortgage broker and get the info you need.  The broker is not the lender and you won't feel rejected.  Then you can come up with  a game plan that will point you in the right direction.

---

[Booner72]

Hello and welcome.  Glad you posted.  You're in the right place and will get lots of advice.

#1   Unfortunately, the TU score you have is not a real FICO score.  I'd advise you to pull your EQ score here at THIS SITE as it is the only relevant score you can buy.  The TU score here is an older version of TU that I'm sure the lender won't use.  If your EQ score is 640+ then you should go to a lender and have them pull your scores  and reports and see where you stand.  The lender can sit down with you and tell you what, if anything, you need to do to get there.  I'm guessing you might already be there.  By there I mean, approvable.

The lender will go with your middle score, so if two are 640+  you should be good to go scorewise, your income I'm sure is fine, and sounds like you don't have much debt so your DTI should qualify - and you've been at your job long enough.

The lender can explain all the options for loans, such as FHA or conventional.  You make too much to get a USDA loan.   How much are you planning to put down?

Also,. congrats on climbing yourself out of the gutter and you should be proud that you are moving forward and ready to buy a house.  From the sounds of it, it sounds like your first?

Booner

[boomhower]

If memory serves FHA allows for alternative forms of tradelines from other bills that can be used in replacement of traditional lines like credit cards and loans.  Take a look at some of the details in that program.

[Anonymous]

---

#1   Unfortunately, the TU score you have is not a real FICO score.  I'd advise you to pull your EQ score here at THIS SITE as it is the only relevant score you can buy. 

---

 I am allready a customer of exquifax, is the score used through this site different?

[trumpet-205]

The score here is FICO score. Actually there are a lot of variation for FICO scores, but they generally scored similarly. The score here gives you a pretty accurate idea of the score lender is using.

The score you get from EQ and TU are their own score, and do not reflect the score that lenders is using.

[Booner72]

Hi, Exedrin.  Better get a new bottle of that stuff.

You are getting a fako score from EQ - it's their own little version of the FICO formula.  FICO is the industry standard in terms of scoring models.  The INFO used is the SAME but how it is scored is different.

Some people's FICO is higher, some lower, some near the same, as the FAKO's.

Don't feel bad, we all fell for this.  I had no idea about FICO/FAKO until this past spring when I dove in, like yourself, to get myself a mortgage.  It's a steep learning curve for sure!

[MarineVietVet]

---

ExcedrinPlease wrote:

#1   Unfortunately, the TU score you have is not a real FICO score.  I'd advise you to pull your EQ score here at THIS SITE as it is the only relevant score you can buy. 

---

 I am allready a customer of exquifax, is the score used through this site different?

---

The score you got from EQ might be an EQ FICO. They make it very confusing. A few months ago EQ began selling their own proprietary "Equifax Credit Score" but this is not a FICO score and is not used by any lenders.

Equifax will still sell you a FICO score found here: www.equifax.com/web-myfico-products/

The bottom line is if you don't see the word "FICO" anywhere when you buy a "score" then it's not a FICO score.

From a BK years ago to:
EX - 3/11 pulled by lender- 835, EQ - 2/11-816, TU - 2/11-782

"Some people spend an entire lifetime wondering if they've made a difference. The Marines don't have that problem".

[Anonymous]

Very interesting. That would explain why the score is different when my credit union lady does a hard pull i guess. The number she gets is actually about 30 points higher than the score i see from my "membership" to EQ. It was 658 when she pulled it 2 months ago, i'll buy it from this site and see what it says. Thank you very much for the info, i've been wondering why they were different.