Jumbo Mortgage Approval?

Anonymous · ‎02-21-2021

Hi all,

My wife and I are looking for a home in the Hilton Head, SC area. We are first time homebuyers and this will be our primary residence.

She has higher mortgage scores (middle 760) and no reportable income (she's been employed less than two years).

I have a middle score of 699, but just paid off two cards so hoping this will go up with my next report at the end of March. As an interesting aside, my FICO 8s have all been going up as my Mortgage scores have steadily decreased. Not asking about that in this thread but any thoughts would be appreciated.

I have an annual income of $160k (with commissions averaged over 2 years).

The homes that we are looking at are in the $650k - $700k range, which I believe puts us in the jumbo range.

We will put 20% down, with DTI of less than 10% (before mortgage). We will also have about 30k in reserves after the down payment, which is being gifted to us by my wife's parents.

My questions are, is this price range realistic based on this data. I am concerned that my middle mortgage score may be too low.

And, should we wait to get preapproved until we have the 30k in reserves, we are at about 21k currently? Is 30k enough in reserves?

Any thoughts would be appreciated!

makeitrightTX · ‎02-22-2021

Not a mortgage expert but you should be good to go. My husband and I were approved for a jumbo loan (680k) with only him on the loan and MMS of 692. We actually were able to only put 5% down. After DP and closing costs we'll have about 50k in reserves, but no one has asked about that. Pre-approval was through NFCU and builder's lender (TriPointe).

iced · ‎02-22-2021

@Anonymous wrote:
Hi all,

My wife and I are looking for a home in the Hilton Head, SC area. We are first time homebuyers and this will be our primary residence.

She has higher mortgage scores (middle 760) and no reportable income (she's been employed less than two years).

I have a middle score of 699, but just paid off two cards so hoping this will go up with my next report at the end of March. As an interesting aside, my FICO 8s have all been going up as my Mortgage scores have steadily decreased. Not asking about that in this thread but any thoughts would be appreciated.

I have an annual income of $160k (with commissions averaged over 2 years).

The homes that we are looking at are in the $650k - $700k range, which I believe puts us in the jumbo range.

We will put 20% down, with DTI of less than 10% (before mortgage). We will also have about 30k in reserves after the down payment, which is being gifted to us by my wife's parents.

My questions are, is this price range realistic based on this data. I am concerned that my middle mortgage score may be too low.

And, should we wait to get preapproved until we have the 30k in reserves, we are at about 21k currently? Is 30k enough in reserves?

Any thoughts would be appreciated!

You might not be jumbo, actually. Conforming limit for SC is just under $550,000, and if you're putting 20% down that means anything under ~$658k will not be a jumbo.

As a jumbo mortgage holder myself, I'd suggest making a slightly larger down payment if you do go closer to $700k to avoid a jumbo. The rates for jumbos are higher right now, so you may be able to save yourself half a percent or more interest with a conventional conforming. Another $20k down now will save you a lot more in the long run.