A house is typically the biggest expense one will have in their entire life. And, even small movements in interest become expensive over the course of a 30 year term. Therefore, in my opinion, you should absolutely, positively with NO EXCEPTIONS, pay down your cards before trying to get a mortgage.
Below is a quick table on your current balances and utilization. Your scores are getting crushed by some of those balances. There are scoring penalties when aither aggregate or individual card utilization surpass 28.9%. And these penalties increase when you surpass 48.9%, 68.9% and 88.9%. (Anything over 88.9% is considered Maxed and gets an even bigger penalty).
Ideally you want your aggregate utilization to be below 8.9% and no individual card above 28.9%. If you truly do not have any late payments, charge-offs,. or collections, I can easily see your score well above 760 if you do, which will get you the best rates.
| Account | Balance | Limit | Util |
| Lowes | $0.00 | $1,000.00 | 0.0% |
| CreditOne | $0.00 | $1,000.00 | 0.0% |
| CreditOne | $175.00 | $1,150.00 | 15.2% |
| Capital One | $479.00 | $1,500.00 | 31.9% |
| Target | $1,483.00 | $2,000.00 | 74.2% |
| Kohls | $2,533.00 | $3,000.00 | 84.4% |
| BoA | $2,200.00 | $2,300.00 | 95.7% |
| Chase | $4,590.00 | $7,000.00 | 65.6% |
| Fingerhut | $1,887.00 | $3,900.00 | 48.4% |
| $13,347.00 | $22,850.00 | 58.4% |
But Wait There's More!!!
- Mortgage scores are particularly sensitive to # of accounts with balances. So, keep this in mind. Also, search these forums and read up on AZEO
- Another way to get your utilization down is to request credit limit increases. Search the forums to see what credit card lenders you have that do not HP for a CLI. You definitely do not want an HP but should be actively seeking any and all SP credity limit increases you can