Will a 700 Mid-Score Mean Easier Underwriting/Close?

[Alberio]

My husband and I have been on a rollercoaster in the homebuying process (as it seems to be for everyone)!  When we first talked to a LO in December, my scores here were EQ 646, TU 646 and EX 681.  My mid score from the LO's point of view was 670 and my husband's was 707.  We thought he made enough to make the DTI criteria on his own for a $400K loan with 20% (aka $100K) down from us.  

Even though we didn't need my credit scores for the loan, I really wanted to improve, so started working on them here.  Then we found out because of the fact that my husband is paid largely in commission, has a relatively new job, claims mortgage and rental on another property a certain way on his tax returns and pays alimony, his DTI was off and we needed my income to rebalance.  That meant because I had the lower credit scores, suddenly only my credit mattered.  With a 670 midscore, we knew it would be tough to qualify for $400K and that we absolutely could not go above $417K into jumbo loan territory. 

In the meantime, my work on my scores here has been pushing my scores up slowly so that now EQ is +24 (670), EX is +6 (687) and TU is +26 (672).  BUT we just submitted our application for a loan and my midscore on lender pull this time was 700!!!  My husband's was 702.  DTI is not a problem at all anymore with my income in the equation.

I was anticipating a difficult application process based on the 670 midscore - with potentially more in reserves or more asked in % down.  Does a 700 score mean that we should have a relatively smooth closing? 

[dpechal]

IMO you could have a 800 Credit score and they would probably stop for two seconds to say, "Not bad at all". But besides that brief two seconds that would be the only special benefit, again this is my opinon

[dollar_bill]

I'm hardly an expert, but from what I have gathered based on my own experieance and that of my friends, there is always gonig to be some hitch. For some, it's smaller than for others. For example, I found out my tax return from 2011 was not filed, or it was filed under an incorrect SSN, or it was lost by the IRS. I have no idea where the truth was. I had to go to the IRS office and submitt a 2011 tax return just to get a stamp. It worked, along with some threatening to use another lender, but now i'm going to have to keep an eye on the IRS doubling up my taxes for 2011. Funny they cash a check but that doesn't mean a return was processed...grrrr.

I really don't like the fact that you have to provide every detail of your financial life,  source out any irregular deposits, sign 1000 pieces of paper, provide an address for the nearest relative, etc... WHO CARES??? But the fact remains if you are in the business of wanting a loan you're on their home court, and those are the rules. My only regret is I did not have the funds to be a cash buyer, but not a lot of individuals are in the category.

All this rambling means... no, IMO it will not necessarily make closing a loan easier. It will help with one thing, and one thing only - your interest rate. Which, at the end of the day, is going to either save you money or cost you extra money for the same loan.

[tooleman694]

My credit was about the same as yours when we closed.

The mortgage process was pretty straight forward. UW wanted a couple letters written.... no big deal I just gave them what they asked for and we closed.