VA Question

[Anonymous]

I've already been told by the lender that I need a 620 score for them to do a VA loan for us. At the time (a few months ago), I was sitting in the 520's. Well, today I purchased my TU and was elated to see a 646 staring back at me. TU has consistantly been my middle FAKO (I know, I know) score, so of course I am really starting to get serious about this being able to happen in time for the April 30 rebate deadline.

Here is my main question. Assuming that the FAKO trend holds true and TU is truly my middle score, does it matter that I still have two collections on my reports? Will they still require me to pay them off before doing business with me, regardless of the score meeting the requirement? I just sent off my final two pfd letters to these two yesterday, and still want them off, but I would rather not have to pay full price on them and have my score not get better because of it.

[Lel]

The best course of action right now would be to sit down with a loan officer that has experience with VA loans so that your approval chances can be assessed.

With regard to the collections, you may not have to pay them before approval, but you may be required to pay them at closing.  If you do want to pay them, then make sure it's a PFD situation (like you're negotiating now).  If you pay a collection that remains on your CR, your score may drop because the date of last activity will be moved up to the present.