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Planning on mortgage.. Any advice?

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Michael982
Contributor

Planning on mortgage.. Any advice?

I want to buy a house in the beginning of next year. I started prepping at the beginning of 2015. Ive paid off all my debts, so no open loans at all. I want to apply for a FHA loan with chase since I have several credit cards and my bank account with them. Are my approval odds good? Are the good bank to get a mortgage with? Here's my current scenario.

 

So far this year, I've only had 1 inquiry for each bureau, so on application I'll have 1 inquiry on each bureau. My oldest account is an authorized user account so my average age is probably 1.5 to 2 years. My current salary is 66000. The ONLY bill I have is have is car insurance. All my lates have been paid and are from when i was 18 and careless. Unfortunatelly they did go to collections. Most of the revolving debt is items on an expense report for work, so I can take it down to 0%, if necessary. Ill be putting about 10% down, maybe more, and am looking in the price range of 160-180k in Texas. I have been at my current job for over 3 years.

 

Also im a first time home buyer!

 

Current FICO 08 scores: Experian 690 Transunion 714 Equifax 708

 

Below are my credit stats:

1st line - Experian

2nd line - Transnion

3rd line - Equifax

 

Revolving Debt
$3,118.00
$3,118.00
$3,118.00
Revolving Credit Limit
$98,900.00
$98,900.00
$98,900.00
Revolving Credit Usage
3%
3%
3%
Real Estate Debt
$0.00
$0.00
$0.00
Installment Debt
$0.00
$0.00
$0.00
Total Debt
$7,773.00
$3,118.00
$3,118.00
Accounts Ever Late
2
2
2
Accounts In Collections
0
0
0
Time Since Negative
4.6 year(s)
5.1 year(s)
4.6 year(s)
Inquiries
21
1
1
Oldest Account
17.9 year(s)
17.9 year(s)
17.9 year(s)
Average Account Age
2.8 year(s)
2.8 year(s)
2.8 year(s)
 
Also after I close on the house I plan on getting 1-2 credit cards about a month later, to help finance some appliances. Would a new mortgage have a major effect on cc approval?

 

Freedom$6,000 CSP$11,000 IT$4,000 BCE$16,200 SallieMae$5,000 NFCU$14,000 Macys$1,000 United$5,000

Message 1 of 8
7 REPLIES 7
Michael982
Contributor

Re: Planning on mortgage.. Any advice?

Also im not sure that FHA is the best route or should I go with a conventional mortgage? Also would a chase pre-qualification good to inquire about, just to see where I stand? Only thing is that i saw them mention like a $300 fee just to check worthiness.

Freedom$6,000 CSP$11,000 IT$4,000 BCE$16,200 SallieMae$5,000 NFCU$14,000 Macys$1,000 United$5,000

Message 2 of 8
Anonymous
Not applicable

Re: Planning on mortgage.. Any advice?

How close are you to Dallas? DallasLoanGuy here on the forums is the man.

Message 3 of 8
Revelate
Moderator Emeritus

Re: Planning on mortgage.. Any advice?


@Michael982 wrote:

Also im not sure that FHA is the best route or should I go with a conventional mortgage? Also would a chase pre-qualification good to inquire about, just to see where I stand? Only thing is that i saw them mention like a $300 fee just to check worthiness.


Chase didn't make me pay anything till the appraisal was going to be ordered, and this was the case both times I went down that road in the last two months.

 

I think you know pretty much where you stand from what you describe, and I second the DallasLoanGuy recommendation as an excellent Texas LO.  Really if you want to know where you are credit wise, spend the $60 here at myFICO for a 3 Bureau instant-in-time report and get your mortgage scores, you might be able to optimize your reports a little bit based on how your revolving utilization is distributed but that's an easy thing to sort out with a few strategic payments.  I would do that before making the pull here personally if you're looking to wait a little bit... wouldn't surprise me if your mortgage trifecta was somewhat higher actually from what you posted, especially if you have any installment history on your report at all.

 

Play with the Chase prequal tool if you're interested; they aren't the best rates on Agency type loans but every single time I put in the numbers it was spot on to their own rate sheet, so you can get some idea on that one before you go talk to anyone.  FWIW's Chase's two major selling points are they'll give you 1% back if you auto ACH it out a Chase checking account and they keep the servicing on most of their mortgages as I understand it.  Beyond that though like any big bank it can really be hit or miss on which LO you get and some of their policies are sort of infuriating... I got lucky and got a good one seemingly but he's California region.

 

Also I'm not really sure how a new mortgage affects various types of reports from a score perspective; however, I absolutely plan on getting my own post-closing credit cards done and out of the way pretty much as soon as I get the keys as I might get slapped non-trivially when the mortgage reports; however, my scores which most credit cards underwrite on are somewhat inflated on my current installment utilization, if you don't have any installment history at all will likely be different and you might even get a boost scorewise just by having an open installment loan on the FICO 8 model... definitely it's an underwriting boost, nothing says financial stability like a mortgage line in some respects Smiley Happy.

 

 




        
Message 4 of 8
Michael982
Contributor

Re: Planning on mortgage.. Any advice?

Thank you for the information! Ive had 3 car loans, well 2 and 1 refinance. They were all paid on time and in great status. I'm actually in Houston, but ill give DallasLoanGuy a shout. I think ill get the myfico scores and see what the mortgage enhanced scores are. I'm not too worried about getting approved, but more interested in what rates ill be offered. Seems like from reading around that prime rates are given to people with about 720-740 scores and up. And I may inquire with Chase as well, since I don't think a additional inquiry will hurt me when it comes time to applying, especially if I keep in the garden till then.

Freedom$6,000 CSP$11,000 IT$4,000 BCE$16,200 SallieMae$5,000 NFCU$14,000 Macys$1,000 United$5,000

Message 5 of 8
ezdriver
Senior Contributor

Re: Planning on mortgage.. Any advice?

Above and beyond score and financial requirements, underwriters like to see a few active tradelines. Closed out tradelines in good standing help with the FICO scores and overall picture of one's credit profile, but you generally goota have credit to get credit. Revelate provided some excellent guidance in the post above. I just wanted to add a general statement to that guidance.

Message 6 of 8
Anonymous
Not applicable

Re: Planning on mortgage.. Any advice?

My mortgage Fico scores are listed below. I feel they are a little low, but my experian should boost up since all the inquiries will fall off by the beginning of the year. The pretty much the only difference between all the bureaus. 

 

Equifax - 719

Transunion - 736

Experian - 696

 

Just FYI.. They deleted my account when i purchased myFico, so I had to create a new username.

Message 7 of 8
Anonymous
Not applicable

Re: Planning on mortgage.. Any advice?

Would I be a better candidate for a FHA or conventional loan? Can you remove PMI on a FHA loan after you have 20% equity.

Message 8 of 8
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