What do i need to work on before qualifying and applying ?

[KoolDev]

1. Credit.  Most Recent Credit Score, Fico Eq 676, 1 paid medical collection for $156 7/09 Equifax 680, Transunion 698, Ex 702
2. Income.  75k per year, not counting bonuses or Wifes disability.
3. Source of income. Employed
4. Monthly debt payments.  Car loan 15900, Loan1 7800, Loan 2, 4700, loan3 3100.  Credit card 11.5k out of 17.5k available-  8 others paid off 0 balance-total Monthly $833.00 payments
5. Employment  Employed with the same company for 24 years in the same industry
6. Assets/Reserves.  177k in annuities,  I still need to sell the house i am in, 15k from that sale.   18k in checking
7. Location.  North Carolina Carteret County  Wind and Hail will be approximately $2300/year
8. Property. Single family home, subdivision New construction
9. Value.  200k
10. Occupancy.  Primary residence
11. Transaction Type.  Purchase
12. Above is where i am at right now.  I plan on purchasing between January and April.  I also have probably 8 credit cards with a 0 balance.   What should be my steps the next few months to rasie my score and make this look better to an underwriter ?  Current scores above have not finished rising due to reporting ( few cards have not reported 0 balance yet ). 
13. Last question, can i buy the house without using my wife, her scores are not good due to medical collections, maybe 600

[StartingOver10]

You can go conventional with the scores you have now. However you can get a better rate on your mortgage insurance if your mid score is above 720.

The quickest way to get your score above 720 is to reduce your utilization. I can't really tell what your utilization is currently because you only mention the total monthly payments combined with your car loans.

Can you break out the balance and the credit limits on each card separately?

Also break out the montly payment for each of your 3 vehicle loans.

Try to get the medical collection removed if possible (goodwill letter). It could be affecting your score even though it is paid.

Boy, your insurance is beginning to look like homeowners insurance in my area (South Fl).  Here is a link for you to find out about Wind Mitigation credits in your area:

http://www.ncjua-nciua.org/html/uw.htm

Here there is a huge difference in rate depending upon the wind credits you get with the wind mitigation inspection. A new house ought to qualify for all of them.

[StartingOver10]

One more thing: don't let the insurance company send out an inspector to do the wind mitigation inspection.  The insurance company inspectors are NOT independent inspectors and may forget to issue you some of the credits for which you qualify. We had that problem here.

Get a licensed and insured reputable third party wind mitigation inspector so you get all the credits for which you qualify. It can save you hundreds to thousands of dollars per year.  In our area the wind mit inspections run $85 to $150 - but are worth every penny. The reports are good for five years unless you have added wind mitigation items to your home, then you want a new inspection to take those items into account.

[KoolDev]

Credit limit on the cards is $42,100, $11.5k is all that is left to pay.   27.3%

NCFU cl is 17.5  balance 11.5k 14.4 % I pay them about 500 a month  I dont know what the minimum is, i have money go into an account and transfer every week.

Chase F cl is 4500 balance 0

Chase    cl is 3500 balance is 0

Care Credit cl is 4500 balance is 0

Walmart Discover cl is 4250 balance is 0

Credit First cl is 1800 balance is 0

JC Pennys cl is 2100 balance is 0    was just increase this week from 1100, may not have reported increase in cl yet

Cap One cl is 1000 balance is 0

Cap One cl is 750 balance is 0

First Flight cl is 1500 balance is 0

Wells Fargo cl is 1000 balance is

Only 1 vehicle loan  15900 payment 280.32/mo 4.25%     bank loan 3180 130/mo 10%   One main 7800 262/mo 16%     Lending club 4700 211/mo 13%

I have worked hard on that medical collection to no avail. 

Thanks for the wind mittigation information.  I will start looking into that !

[StartingOver10]

Looking at your current DTI for the cc's it seems your score ought to be higher.The only TL that has high utilization is the NFCU at 65%. If you got that one under 30% it just may get your score over the 720 range. Remember the scoring formula measures individual utilitization plus overall utilitization too.

 I am assuming you are using FICO scores and not FAKO.

I wonder if the OneMain TL is hurting you. How is it reporting on your CR? As a installment loan or something else?

[KoolDev]

FAKO, oh no never.

The One Main is a sub prime lender, so it is very well possible that particular TL does not help.  Remember the score of 676 is without all the pay offs on the credit cards.  there should be another 3400 coming off of those amounts reporting.

Home loan is 3 yrs old and a refi to 4.75%

Average age of accounts is like 5 years  oldest is showing as 18.    the small loans were opened less than year ago, except the One Main, its 3 years old

I am expecting the scores to climb to 700 or just above.   I just need to know which of the loans to knock out first, the newest, highest interest rate or a couple of the small ones.   Or knock the nfcu on down.

[StartingOver10]

I think you will be in much better shape once the payoff's show up on your report.

IMO paying off the NFCU line or at least as much as feasible to less than 30% will really help your score tremendously. The 65% is really hurting you.

I thought that OneMain was a subprime TL, but I don't know the direct or indirect affect it is having on your score. Maybe someone else knows here or in the Understanding your FICO score section.

[KoolDev]

I think what i can do is go ahead and bring the ncfu card down to about 8k owed tomorrow.  I have to buy my daughter a car Monday, she total lossed the other one by driving thru standing water and sucking it into the engine, JoY.  But it will be a cash deal.   the company i work for is selling me a 2011 Buick Lucerne (sp) CXL premium with 47k miles for $10k.  Cant pass that deal up, book value is 19k.

I dont want to stretch my self too thin with available cash, something ALWAYS happens when i do LOL.

[StartingOver10]

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@KoolDev wrote:

I think what i can do is go ahead and bring the ncfu card down to about 8k owed tomorrow.  I have to buy my daughter a car Monday, she total lossed the other one by driving thru standing water and sucking it into the engine, JoY.  But it will be a cash deal.   the company i work for is selling me a 2011 Buick Lucerne (sp) CXL premium with 47k miles for $10k.  Cant pass that deal up, book value is 19k.

I dont want to stretch my self too thin with available cash, something ALWAYS happens when i do LOL.

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I hope your daughter is okay. That is the important part. Sounds like a great deal on the car.

Totally agree with your last statement! That's when things always happen, when you are low on funds...