Wait to pull trimerge again? Likelihood of approval?

[Anonymous]

A month ago, our mortgage lender pulled a trimerge report through Credit Plus. It showed my scores in the 670's and 680's. This was kind of a shock as I had recently paid some debt and my Fico8 scores were showing 700/715. One card was still maxed out and my CU was like 30% overall (I don't have high limits on anything).  I then paid off all my debt, even my car loan (it only had two payments left). I 

We are trying to buy a house in the 500/550 range but want the flexibility to go up to 600. We want to put 5% down. My income is 125k.

I don't have any debt or payments other than the mortgage (2700) for a duplex I owner occupy and plan to keep. I rent the bottom unit for 1200 and plan to rent the upper unit when we move out.

Currently, through this site, I can see that my mortgage scores are showing 743 (FICO5/Equifax), 752 (FICO4/Transunion), 731 (FICO2/Experian).

My LO says we shouldn't try to re-pull credit until the end of March at the earliest and that he doesn't know what scores will qualify me for a 5% downpayment at my price point. 

I have two questions:

1) Is there some kind of delay with the trimerge? Why can't we pull credit now?

2) Does anyone have a sense of whether I will be approved for a 5% downpayment with my current scores? 

[Mortgage-Specialist]

Being that your mortgage scores show that they increased from thos site, the lender will pull the same scores now. There would be no reason to wait. Your current scores shown will more than likely get you the approval you're looking for. 

[mgs2010]

What kind of LO are you working with? I am an LO and can tell you with absolute certainty that with the mortgage scores you quoted below, assuming that everything else checks out in terms of income, no undisclosed liens, etc that you qualify for 5% down conventional. Why was your lender ever questioning that in the first place? That's rather odd. 5% is the standard minimum down payment on a conventional owner occupied residence, unless you are a first time buyer in which case you may do 3% down conventional. I know you mentioned owning a duplex, so you would not qualify for 3% down. 

Your LO suggesting to pull at the end of March doesn't make sense either. If you have seen the balances on the accounts you recently paid reflect on your bureaus, then there is absolutely no reason to delay pulling again. The only time I suggest waiting is if the payments were within the same calendar month - for example if you paid in the beginning of March and you haven't seen it reflect on the bureau yet. 

Not to sound rude or anything but I would suggest working with a different lender or at least a different loan officer, it sounds like maybe you're working with a rookie that just doesn't know how all of this works. Typical in this industry because the covid rate drops attracted a TON of new loan officers to the field and not all of them know the ins and outs of lending guidelines.

Rest assured, you can put 5% down conventional on a primary residence with a qualifying score of 620+

Good luck to you.

[VALoanMaster]

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@Anonymous wrote:

A month ago, our mortgage lender pulled a trimerge report through Credit Plus. It showed my scores in the 670's and 680's. This was kind of a shock as I had recently paid some debt and my Fico8 scores were showing 700/715. One card was still maxed out and my CU was like 30% overall (I don't have high limits on anything).  I then paid off all my debt, even my car loan (it only had two payments left). I 

We are trying to buy a house in the 500/550 range but want the flexibility to go up to 600. We want to put 5% down. My income is 125k.

I don't have any debt or payments other than the mortgage (2700) for a duplex I owner occupy and plan to keep. I rent the bottom unit for 1200 and plan to rent the upper unit when we move out.

Currently, through this site, I can see that my mortgage scores are showing 743 (FICO5/Equifax), 752 (FICO4/Transunion), 731 (FICO2/Experian).

My LO says we shouldn't try to re-pull credit until the end of March at the earliest and that he doesn't know what scores will qualify me for a 5% downpayment at my price point. 

I have two questions:

1) Is there some kind of delay with the trimerge? Why can't we pull credit now?

2) Does anyone have a sense of whether I will be approved for a 5% downpayment with my current scores? 

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 It's possible that the credit vendor has a 30 day lock on the report. The lender has to either wait until 30 days has elapsed or they have to call the vendor and have them "hide" the existing report in their system in order to pull a new one.

While Fannie and Freddie say you're eligible with a 620 or better mid score, there is no guarantee that you'll get an approval through an Automated Underwriting System (AUS). I just had a client with a 701 score not get AUS approved so there is no real way to give a definitive answer without running your file through an AUS.

It probably wouldn't hurt to at least talk with another lender.