@Anonymous wrote:
If I take out a small personal loan (under 1k) now what effect will it have on my chances of getting approved for a mortgage in the next 3-6 months. Is this something that varies between lenders? If it helps my only current debt is my credit cards which doesn't amount to very much.
As long as the total DTI ratio doesn't exceed what you need for the house it should not be a problem.
I'm going through the mortgage process right now and just got a $10,000 CL NASA CC. Like the person above said, the LO will ask you to "explain" inquiries.... which is a lot easier to do if you actually get an account out of it 
Inquiries that are made just prior to applying, or during the application process, are taken MUCH more seriously, especially if the TL doesn't/hasn't shown up on your credit report yet.
They just want to make sure you haven't gone hog wild with new credit recently and have the potential to be high risk. If you're still a few months out I would say go for it. It'll post to your CR by then. Life happens you know... and if you're doing things to raise your score (which some LOs encourage!!) most won't even blink an eye over something so small --- just MY experience
@Anonymous wrote:
Thanks for the input. My current DTI is good with nothing but min CC payments, a small loan would put me around 5%. I have the option of getting a secured CD loan with no HP, I know the lender will see the new acct anyway, but it won't hurt my score other than AAoA. Do they treat secured loans any differently?
DTI is good, and a small loan putting you at 5% wouldn't hurt one tiny bit IMO
I did the "secured" CD loan.... the bank still did a HP for it.... so be careful there to make sure!! Although, even for me, the HP and the initial score hit I took when the account posted were more than made up for after 3 months. As for the secured vs unsecured....don't think there's a difference. Not 100% sure, but when mine hit my CR I took a small point decrease (I want to say 2 pts for the inquiry and another 5 pts for the initial TL hitting), but within three months my score had jumped almost 25 pts.... so it was well worth it. Also, when I paid it off, my score dropped almost 20 pts! 
So don't pay it off any time even close to the mortgage pull