Mortage loans.

[Bleu]

I talked to a realtor last week and he said they dont use FICO scores , they have their own scoring system that they use. Is this with every broker or just them?

[StartingOver10]

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@Bleu wrote:

I talked to a realtor last week and he said they dont use FICO scores , they have their own scoring system that they use. Is this with every broker or just them?

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Very weird.

Either the Realtor doesn't know or they have their own system.

Are you looking to buy with a mortgage or are you doing something else like a Rent to Own?  A Rent to Own type thing has their own criteria.

[Bleu]

Well i just googled it. All banks use their own criteria.  Some use fico but it's not guaranteed that they will.

[StartingOver10]

Most banks use a FICO score based system - however, it is of the FICO mortgage score (usually). It is not the score necessarily you get from here as we are looking at the consumer score.

The lender now has to tell you the score they used once they pull your credit. So a good LO can tell you the source of the score that their particular firm uses.

[Bleu]

Here's hoping

[Peter1142]

I don't imagine lenders who use a different scoring system can sell their mortgages as "prime" loans... or get them insured via standard channels (i.e. FHA)... you are making apples to oranges comparisons of borrower's creditworthiness.

[Revelate]

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@StartingOver10 wrote:

Most banks use a FICO score based system - however, it is of the FICO mortgage score (usually). It is not the score necessarily you get from here as we are looking at the consumer score.

The lender now has to tell you the score they used once they pull your credit. So a good LO can tell you the source of the score that their particular firm uses.

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If they're bundling and dumping the mortages on the GSE's, it's FICO '04's classic/baseline; the mortgage industry option wasn't created until the FICO '08 release.  The EQ score here will match the typical tri-merge report that virtually all conventional and likely FHA lenders pull as I understand it.

Bleu: in general, unless the lender you're working with is portfolioing their own mortgages in which case they can do pretty much whatever they want... and this is incredibly rare currently outside of maybe the massive institutions in the jumbo space, it will 99% be a FICO because they're going to have to meet the criteria of the places they're secondary-marketing the loan to.  

That said, lenders can and will use secondary scores as well across most of their product lines, wouldn't surprise me if they have an additional one in mortgages but I'd be suspect of the realtor's information in this case.  The market just isn't set up that way currently.

[Bleu]

Thanks

[ezdriver]

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@Bleu wrote:

I talked to a realtor last week and he said they dont use FICO scores , they have their own scoring system that they use. Is this with every broker or just them?

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Who exactly is "they"? Realtors do not access anyone's credit scores ... legally. The exception is if you are looking to rent and, in that case, they use a 3rd party system to check on prospective tenants.

If you are buying a house, the Realtor should not be doing any type of credit check on you unless that Realtor is also your lender/loan officer.

Which situation covers your scenario? Are you looking to rent or to purchase a home?

All mortgage lenders use a tri-merge credit report that combines the data from all three credit reporting agencies into a single report. Merging and purging is done. The scores in that report are based on some version of the FICO alogorithm.