20% is a good place to be for DP be sure to look up what your state specifically is if it is 20,25 or 30% recommended but also DO NOT TOUCH your credit/app/inquiries on new things for at least 3 months BEFORE you do your home if you want to do a car you can do it after you have the keys in your hand to your home, but I wouldn't do it near a home in chance of possibly hurting your home purchase. It is a lot of work, but you do have a good DP to start. Just be sure you don't buy more house than you need and be sure to check the area, if you plan to build a family check schools in the area and how far away grocery is etc (believe it or not that can break a good home you really love) also be aware of HOA and if it is Sewage or Septic those things can change your love for the home and middle 650 MORTGAGE SCORE is a good place to be minimally recommended so if you middle MS is 700+ that's pretty great 
Main things just don't touch your Score until Keys in Hand and do TONS of research on the home especially if it is something you don't plan to move out of later. Keep in mind pricing that may pop up also for Appraisals and other things that may come out of your pocket. 
Basically if you're chasing a house:
- Unless you are 760+ chase every available point, 740+ if you don't need any sort of PMI.
- Don't add any additional loans that aren't absolutely required, sort anything that will hit DTI later if at all possible
- Don't apply for anything actually that isn't absolutely necessary (see above, functional transportation to maintain income stream is the only honest exception... there's penalties on the mortgage scores for inquiries for a year and new accounts for longer than that, so just stop applying cold turkey.
- AZEO for sure
- Save what you can, you'll probably need more than you think afterwards and more cash going into a mortgage is always a good thing.
The easy no PMI/MIP is 20% down so you're looking at a 425K house. If you're looking for more than that, there are some 90/10 or 80/10/10 but you will virtually always pay a higher rate for these it's just billed differently and over the course of the loan (or secondary) rather than known end quanitities in the PMI case.
There really isn't that much to getting a loan through there will just be too many questions depending how good (or lousy as is sadly the case often) your underwriter is; be prepared to explain your cash flow in terms of patterns of deposits and outflows, and you'll have to be able to demonstrate the money you are using for downpayment is actually yours or otherwise permissible gift. Stupid things like my dad's annual gift which I wasn't even using for the downpayment nearly tripped my own mortgage up recently, I would've been better just hanging onto it for another 5 months before cashing it but I honestly in January I wasn't thinking mortgage at all so I wasn't prepared at all but even with sloppy balances my credit score was still north of 760 so I just went for it anyway.
Also if you're a W2 employee income is basically 1 months' paystubs which is straight-forward, if 1099/SE it's 2 years tax returns. On that second one whatever you claim as your post-deduction income is what they're going to base it off of and sometimes that needs to be massaged in order to qualify on the income side.
@elixerin wrote:wow thank you guys so much for the amazing advice... i hear this Middle score high score thing get thrown around a lot, where can i find that? my experian shows a bunch of scores but no mortgage just bankcard and auto scores 2, 8
EX FICO 2 Classic
Should be the first one in the left tab labeled Mortgage the same place as the AU and BC under additional scores.
That is one is the trifecta, the other two are EQ FICO 5 and TU FICO 4. You can get them from some various places including myFICO here on 1B/3B reports.
@Revelate wrote:
@elixerin wrote:wow thank you guys so much for the amazing advice... i hear this Middle score high score thing get thrown around a lot, where can i find that? my experian shows a bunch of scores but no mortgage just bankcard and auto scores 2, 8
EX FICO 2 Classic
Should be the first one in the left tab labeled Mortgage the same place as the AU and BC under additional scores.
That is one is the trifecta, the other two are EQ FICO 5 and TU FICO 4. You can get them from some various places including myFICO here on 1B/3B reports.
@Revelate ah yes, my FICO2 is 687, eek 
then again though i cant really raise that without a mortgage? or is it like raising regular 08's
@elixerin wrote:
@Revelate wrote:
@elixerin wrote:wow thank you guys so much for the amazing advice... i hear this Middle score high score thing get thrown around a lot, where can i find that? my experian shows a bunch of scores but no mortgage just bankcard and auto scores 2, 8
EX FICO 2 Classic
Should be the first one in the left tab labeled Mortgage the same place as the AU and BC under additional scores.
That is one is the trifecta, the other two are EQ FICO 5 and TU FICO 4. You can get them from some various places including myFICO here on 1B/3B reports.
@Revelate ah yes, my FICO2 is 687, eek
A mortgage is just an installment loan and it's a small part of any FICO algorithm anyway. You can get a perfect score with nothing but revolvers, your issue AFAIK is just limited history. Your scores will improve with time and the lack of deliquencies / derogatories.
@Revelate wrote:
@elixerin wrote:
@Revelate wrote:
@elixerin wrote:wow thank you guys so much for the amazing advice... i hear this Middle score high score thing get thrown around a lot, where can i find that? my experian shows a bunch of scores but no mortgage just bankcard and auto scores 2, 8
EX FICO 2 Classic
Should be the first one in the left tab labeled Mortgage the same place as the AU and BC under additional scores.
That is one is the trifecta, the other two are EQ FICO 5 and TU FICO 4. You can get them from some various places including myFICO here on 1B/3B reports.
@Revelate ah yes, my FICO2 is 687, eek
A mortgage is just an installment loan and it's a small part of any FICO algorithm anyway. You can get a perfect score with nothing but revolvers, your issue AFAIK is just limited history. Your scores will improve with time and the lack of deliquencies / derogatories.
if i can secure a decent mortgage and auto rate i probably wouldnt look at my score any longer i have no clue what type of scores UW's pull and how to raise it as much as can be before closing
740- CONV.
760- FHA
thanks a ton @Revelate, it looks like i have some work to do, at least 20 points worth.. it would appear mortgage isn't a possibility for me this year. I was looking 20 down is the min for no PMI in Florida and will probably be a house around 300-400k. Is it a good idea to close with a fairly* good score like 720 and refi later or would it be best to wait.. i don't wanna rush anything but at the same time do we really wanna re-lease or can/should we actually start building some equity in something.. Then again, i have an odd feeling im gonna make some rookie mistake somewhere along the process being my first time buying,
Honestly at 20% down and 680 even it's worth looking at conventional.
My guess by this time next year rates will be somewhat higher. Ultimately rates are low and will stay low historically just they likely won't be *this* low again.
But 680 now vs 720 later might be the same.
Explicitly mortgage scores are the 3 mortgage scores seen here at myFICO or I think you have the Experian service their mortgage score is there too. With your cash flow if you need to know just purchase from here frankly or at least that is what I would do if I needed to know in a hurry and your cash flow is higher than mine at any rate.
Ultimately have your revolving utilization pretty when you need it and everything will come to you as you just need more age for lofty scores.
