Mortgage Approval Strategy

[Anonymous]

Hi Everyone, 

Let me apologize for the length of this, but wanted to give as much info as possible. Like so many others, I'm a long-time lurker, but have only posted a few times.  I've decided to take the plunge and prepare myself to try to buy a home. I wanted to lay out some of my data points and get your feedback - especially those LOs out there. I want to pre-qualify/approve in Mid-February / Early March if possible, but I'm not sure it will be possible and I need to qualify for a conventional loan to take full advantage of my state's Down Payment Assistance Plan w/o any overlays (they require a 680 mid-score for this). I want to make the most score impact while still saving. I know that CC Debt is the larget part of my problem and already have a plan of attack, but I want to make the most effective moves with my money as I'm saving and paying debt simultaneously.  

Salary is a few $ over 100k

myFico Mortgage Scores as of 7/24/20:

Equifax - 600

Transunion - 604

Experian - 614

Credit Card Balances: - I already saved $3000 and have plans to pay 5 of these to 0 in the next 30 Days

Cap One V1 - $1200/3300 

Cap One QS - $1600 / 2400

Cap One Sec - $467/ 600

BofA Secured - $0 / 600

NFCU GoRewards - $6800 / $7500

Discover IT - $400 /$600

Nordstrom - $0 / $300

Target - $399/$500

Comenity -Express - $140 / 1350

Walmart - $1189 / 1200

Amazon Store - $900 / $1200

Macy's - $1190 / $1200

Loans: 

 Student Loan 1 - $59,000

 Student Loan 2 - $10,500

 Personal Loan  1 - $7100 / $7500 (Started in April 20)

 Personal Loan 2 - $1050 / $1500 (Recently doubled my monthly payment from $50 - $100/m (This one is a bit predatory at 29%APR  but needed it at the time 24 / 48 mos remaining)

Baddies:

Comenity Express - 2 $30-Day lates in early 2017 (attempted to GW to no avail)

Cap One - 1 -  $30 Day Lates Early 2017

Cap One - 1 30-Day Late Early 2018

Merrick Bank ( Closed by me for over a year) - 3 30-Day lates Early 2017

No other negative information. Applied and was approved for a Best Buy Card - $2000 / Samsung Financing Account -$1200 earlier this month (no usage / not reporting - I changed my mind when I decided to go on the home purchase path). 

What strategies would make the largest score impact?  Am I being completly unrealistic thinking that I'd even have a shot at being pre-approved / be able to shop by early Feb?

[NC_Mtg_Loaner]

This may not be easy, but I think you just need to focus.

First, my opinion is that you have way too many credit card accounts open and active but DO NOT CLOSE ANY OF THEM.  Pay as many to zero as possible and stop using them.

Pay down the Macy's and Walmart cards below 50% ASAP and pay off the second personal loan quickly as well. 

You might earn too much money to qualify for DPA, but you also should be able to save for your down payment as well and I would highly recommend it once you break the habit of depending on credit cards.  

[Anonymous]

Thank you!  I definitely did alot of cc spending for "points" which are now killing me. I'm already working to pay all of them except the NFCU to 0 by January.