When to go for it

[Sbrooks1]

I have waited for things to improve, and they have on fico 08. Scores are 720-764, but my mortgage scores have not moved in a year despite 100 PT gains in 08. So, I will have to apply with these scores which means def FHA. Mid score now only 673 and I obviously have failed at something 😩

[Anonymous]

I would try now... you will probably qualify with that score! Hold onto your cash instead of paying more debt down.  You may not need to!  My husbands score was 654..currently in underwriting.

[Sbrooks1]

Thanks, there is actually nothing left to pay down! Just an 6 yr old 40 charge off that holds down score!!

[Calidreaming]

Sbrooks, I am in a similar boat as you with the middle mortgage scores.  My scores are low due to a 3 year old redeemed repo which is the only blemish on my report.  My FICO8 scores are all in the mid 700's.  But my middle mortgage score will not budge out of the mid 600's no matter how much revolving  debt I pay down.  My high score is with Experian and is 726+ and my next highest is Equifax with 665.  It seems the difference is that Experian does not ding you for having a balance on an negative account.  It seems the other bureaus will ding you until the balance is paid in full even if you are paying the balance on time.

It's really weird how there can be so much variation in the algorithms among the credit bureaus.  I'm not sure why a six year old blemish would still be haunting you since it's about to fall off anyway.

[Revelate]

I assume you've asked for a courtesy exclusion already from the bureaus?

FHA isn't a terrible route and it's not score dependent; if you need to go now it's an option... if you can wait for the year you'll do better though I'm kind of curious what's explicitly in your file as with a 5 year old tax lien which I'd assume is just as bad as a charge off if not worse, I managed to hit 720.

Data point without my tax lien got to 742 on EX FICO 2, and I'd hit 731 previously (when my installment utilization didn't suck with said tax lien) so I'm a little surprised your score is that depressed.  When did you pay the charge off?  Also got to 730 on TU FICO 4... my EQ FICO 5 has never been above 700, ever, not sure why it hates me so much.

[Sbrooks1]

I think it may be the way the CO is reporting and I have assumed it was correctly so. On TU the CO shows no lates just a 40 charge off but in EQ shows mult 120 day lates prior to the CO like 4-6. I'm not sure which bureau is right but I don't wanna mess with the reporting in TU as that score is 20 points higher