@Revelate wrote:You're doing fine, FWIW I didn't start caring about my credit until nearly 37 and was cash-based for everything except for rental cars for nearly two decades. Personally I wish I'd gone through my own journey starting at 33 but c'est la vie. We are a bit atypical in modern society though.
Your history isn't that short, but you have enough tradelines established now from a FICO perspective; you may not be getting much in the way of rewards and admittedly it's inconvenient but you're right on the cusp of decent cards score wise, and if you can wait a bit (I'd check again in roughly March) you may be in a better position as you have a decent setup now from a pure score building standpoint.
No need to worry about the high balance, if anything underwriters will see it as a positive in my opinion, and FICO doesn't care about it at all. You used the card and paid it back, that's what credit cards are designed for and you're at a good utilization number now.
Revelate-
I just saw this response. Thanks so much for the advice! It's nice to hear that I'm not the only late bloomer in the credit world. And it seems that there is a certain amount of strategy involved in how to build credit, so I really appreciate hearing from others who have been there. 
Starting Score: 580