Time to try?

[James1992]

ok.. I've spent the last month cleaning my credit report up from a slew of identity theft issues... I'm down to either none reported (Experian) one collection still showing up on TU (Which I'm still fighting.. cavalry portfolio..) And EQ, which still lists 4 bad accounts and the same Cavalry issue.

I"m gone from a 522, 545, 554, to a 604 (EQ) 664 (TU) and ??? from Experian (For some reason everytime I try to buy my experian FICO it won't let me, says it can't process the order, PRE the removal of the Collections from Experian my FICO was/is 644)

THe run down:

My wife and I put our current home on the market a little over a month ago, in *two* days we got a cash offer right under our asking price! Whoot!, but then 2 days later discovered all that identity theft problems.

My wife has her heart set on a Homesteps home in a neighborhood we love. There's a conventional house as well she likes, but she loves the homesteps one. Our buyers (thankfully) have agreed to wait while I got this cleared up.. at least for a bit. The homesteps house is still for sale 60 days later. In fact they just dropped the price by 14 grand, so it may be close to time to make an offer.

However I want to get pre-qualified, first. Because it's homesteps, we were only going to put 5% down..but need an average FICO of over 660 for that.. and I don't know if my middle FICO meets that.. *grrr*

My wife's middle FICO is 745, but she's a teacher, not a high enough income for qualification. 

So based on the above.. Do you think it's worth it to try and see if we can get approved for Homesteps on Monday? Anyone? My mom was going to even co-sign, but she's retired, and doesn't have enough income... Always something!

[ShanetheMortgageMan]

Just because a home is being sold by Freddie Mac under their HomeSteps program doesn't mean you have to use that type of mortgage to purchase it, you can use regular conventional financing or even FHA financing you'd like.  Your scores should be OK for either.  HomeSteps doesn't have PMI but you still pay for it through a higher rate.  It also doesn't require an appraisal, which may or may not be a bad thing (since an appraisal can let you know if the price of the home is in line with the value).

[James1992]

True.. Think I should try just through my credit union?

[ShanetheMortgageMan]

I'd check with at least 2-3 places, your credit union would be a good start.  Just make sure whoever you are speaking to there isn't just taking an application and can actually answer all of your questions.