Can I get a loan? Should I do it now? Fico noob alert :)

[Anonymous]

My score has been low for years.  I hired a credit firm to try and get some stuff deleted.  2 months passed and my score went down.  Then last week I get a letter from experion saying I had 3 items deleted.  No Fico alert , nothing from the credit firm stating changes in my report.  

Then I get this

 There are a few changes to your credit report today:

• An account listed on your credit report has changed.

Also, your FICO® score has increased by 73


I wonder if this will last long or go even higher as the other beuros also start to delete old/incorrect items. 

Here is my history

  10/11 650 Score Watch® alert: Your score exceeded your target of 620. Yes

  9/28 577 Score Watch® alert: Your score is unchanged. Yes  

9/27 577 Score Watch® alert: Possible higher rate on a new HLOAN . Yes

  9/21 590 Score Watch® alert: Your score is unchanged. Yes  

9/19 590 Score Watch® alert: Your score has gone up. Yes  

9/10 589 Score Power report: Your score has gone up.    

3/24/2007 584 Score Watch® alert: Your score has dropped. Yes  

3/21/2007 596 Score Watch® alert: Your score has gone up.  

  7/8/2005 544 Score Watch® alert: Your score is unchanged. Yes

   6/25/2005 544 Score Watch® alert: Your score has gone up. Yes

  5/6/2005 518 Score Watch® alert: Your score exceeded your target of 517.     4/1/2005 513 Score Watch® alert: Your score has dropped. Yes

  3/2/2005 516 Score Watch® alert: Your score is unchanged. Yes  

What kind of rate would I get if i even qualified?   I hate to try and get a loan just to get a ding on my credit and cause my score to drop again.  I also have about 5 more negative items that will drop of my report because of 7 year rule in next 6-10 months.   All my credit in last 4 years is perfect. Not much but a couple car loans (one paid off). 

[BrianB_The_Loan_Professor]

If your middle score is above 620 an FHA loan may be easy to qualify for. It really depends on your debt to income ratio based on monthly income vs. debt.

If you are fine there then you will probably qualify.

Good Luck

Brian

[Anonymous]

I'm not sure what "middle score" is.  I'm sure TA and Experian scores are closer to 600 and have a much lower score than Experion.  Not paid for the scores yet.  I have very little debt (400$ a month for my Mustang) and make around 100K year.

What kind of rates am i looking at?  Should I apply for preapproval?  Where to start?  Or should I wait?

[BrianB_The_Loan_Professor]

Your debt to incomne should be fine. Any score above 580 will likely qualify and there is only one way to know. That is to get with a lender/broker and have them pull credit and run your scenario for you. Rates right now are not pretty in general but you are looking at probably mid to high 6's.

You will need a down payment so while the seller can pay closing costs (you must negotiate) you still have to come in with some cash.

Brian

[Anonymous]

We have about 10K saved.  We are saving 1K a month in hopes of buying a house in the spring.  But if now is a good time to buy we can get somthing now.   How much down payment do I need ? 

[BrianB_The_Loan_Professor]

Plan on 3.5% of the purchase price.

10k will get you almost 300k

Brian

[Anonymous]

Wow!  300K is too much.  We like to travel and scuba dive alot.  We want something 100-125K that we can do a 15 year loan on and still afford to travel. 

[BrianB_The_Loan_Professor]

LOL:

I understand I was just showing max.

Of course 100-125k will not be a problem

You should easily qualify unless there is a hidden demon on your credit report (recent late etc)

You will be able to come in with a down payment and have reserves

If you can come in with 10% down and get a 15 yr loan you may be able to avoid mortgage insurance as well.....

Brian

[Anonymous]

I called countrywide yesterday after making this post and was approved!   6.5% FHA loan

Still a way off from picking a house but nice to know I wont have to worry about credit. 

Thanks fico forums!

[Anonymous]

Congrats!!

Countrywide gets a bad rap, but that's who we're going with - our realtor recommended a Countrywide LO. He has been absolutely fabulous, extremely responsive, and the process so far has been as smooth as we could have expected. I especially like that, for our area anyway, the processors and underwriters are all in house with the LO so he's not having to send our file to some nameless faceless entity halfway across the country - he can just go talk to the processor or underwriter in person. Makes everything a lot easier.