I've been monitoring out credit reports for several months and paying off as much as we could this last year. According to our LO we have to have a minimum of 620 to get approved for a home. Today I got notice that my scores are TU 642 Ex 641 EQ 635. His are TU 635, Ex 634 and EQ 642!!!! 
I'm so happy and I want to just jump in and apply right away, there's a darling house for $110,000 I'm just dying to have and we have a down payment of $4,000 meeting the 3.5% required. However, we do still have some things to pay off. The majority of which are medical bills, we have no credit card collections left. Just medical, a cell phone bill and a cable bill. It will take us about a year to pay the remainder off. All of these things are older collections (mostly '06 and '07 and 2 medical at the beginning of '11) We have an income of $60,000 a year and he has been at his job for 3 years and mine at 7. We have 3 credit cards with low balances (or at least they'll be low friday lol) car payments at $545 a month and a student loan at $50 per month and we have not been late on ANYTHING in 2 years. Should I go ahead and apply or wait another year? The rates are so good right now and I found the perfect house so I'm feeling quite impatient. 
I obtained my scores thru transunion.com, I had decided to just check them, but when I saw my score had gone up quite a bit I decided to upgrade to the 3 in 1 report they offered. also not to sound dumb, but what does "opting out of CRA's" mean?
@JJ21685 wrote:I've been monitoring out credit reports for several months and paying off as much as we could this last year. According to our LO we have to have a minimum of 620 to get approved for a home. Today I got notice that my scores are TU 642 Ex 641 EQ 635. His are TU 635, Ex 634 and EQ 642!!!!
As llecs has mentioned, the scores you have mean pretty much nothing to someone who is on the 'edge' of qualifying. You could very well still have scores in the 500's, perhaps one two or all three. My Equifax FAKO(What the call non FICO scores) are actually less than my real FICO so you never know. My first suggestion would be to purchase your FICO scores here at myfico.com and order your transunion/equifax scores. Please note that myfico.com uses the older TU scoring model that APPEARS in my experience to favor lower credit card balances and show a higher score than the typical TU04? scoring model that most lenders are currently using today. The EQ score you can obtain from here will be spot on. myfico isn't offering any coupon promos anymore so I actually suggest you go right to equifax.com to obtain your EQ score as there is a better deal there and their scorewatch service is better in my experience. You should also know, that when your scores are rising, you are prone to be rebucketed temporarily which puts you in a new group of people to be compared against when your situations change and can drop your scores temporarily which you don't want, so once your scores hit the point you need, wait another month or two to let the dust settle and to see if you get rebucketed as scores change on a frequent basis. Get your credit card debt paid down to zero and carry a very small balance on one of your cards and also keep in mind that you will likely have more expenses other than the 3.5% due to inspection and appraisal costs not to mention any of the debts they may ask you to pay down prior toward closing. With a score as low as 620 it is likely that they will make you jump through extra hoops not typically necessary potentially in terms of what you must pay off before closing.
As one of my wiser friends told me, fall in love with the deal, not the house. Now, its pretty easy to find a good deal these days but do as you wish. I think a starting point would be this: Let your credit card balances post to your credit report, make sure to carry a small balance on ONE of your cards. Then once that is reflected on your credit reports, pull your scores and see where you stand. If your middle score is over 620 then do what you want!
EDIT: Another note, you CAN NOT obtain a true Experian FICO score. If you are buying a score and it provides you with an experian score, you can know they are VantageScores or similar, also called FAKOs. Experian does not sell their scoring model to the general public and is only obtainable when you pull your credit score through a lender when you apply for a loan of some type.