Question on getting a home loan approval

[Anonymous]

A co-worker I spoke with told me that when he went in to apply with his loan/broker company, the lady helping him with the process somehow helped him with a credit boost. I dont know the details of how, all he said was that it was quick and it did raise his score and got him in better position for the loan. Is this something that all mortgage lenders can do or is it only some that have this ability? I would appreciate any info, thanks.

I want to try and apply for a loan within a month or two. The score (fico) i pulled last month was a 601, I can go VA or FHA. My gross income is in the low to mid 80K a year. What do you think my chances are at this point?

[Anonymous]

A broker that I spoke with a couple of years ago was offering to help me increase my scores. I never pursued it because she seemed a little shady, just rubbed me the wrong way. I'm not sure what they could do except review your credit report and offer advice about strategies, i.e.: paying down accounts, etc...

[Anonymous]

It's called rapid rescore.  I believe all lenders have the ability to use the service but not all lenders will be able to tell you what to do to raise your scores.  As you can imagine it's not really magic.  The easiest "trick" is if you have balances on credit cards close to the limit.  You pay down the cards and they order a rapid rescore to get your scores updated faster than usual.  Some are reluctant to use it because it costs them for every rescore. 

I would get your free reports from all three bureaus and hilight all the negative items.  If all you have is high utilization you can pay down the cards and wait a month for them to update your reports or apply and see if the lender will do the rescoring.  If you have other negative items I would recommend the Rebuilding Your Credit board and list them out.  They'll be able to help you out.  If you've had late payments you can try writing goodwill letters asking the creditor to remove the late marks for you.  If you have paid medical collections you can use the HIPAA process to get them removed.

Message Edited by rmily on 05-19-2009 07:55 AM

[DallasLoanGuy]

Make sure your loan officer knows what they are doing.

Most have access to rapid rescore..... but you should have them run the credit report thru some 'what if' scenarios first.... to see if the changes will give you enough points.