Advice for preparing for house purchase: file too thin?

[Anonymous]

My Sister and Brother-in-Law are preparing to buy a house in the next 1-3 years and I got their permission to get some advice from the forums. They want to know how important you think it is to get above 800 FICO score or if their 795 FICO and thin file is ok. I mentioned 800+ FICO seems to be the "top teir" for lowest APR on 30-year mortgages but I don't know if 795 is close enough and no effort is needed besides maybe requesting a higher CC limit.

My Brother-in-law's median FICO 8 is 776 and his FICO5/4/2 median is 795 with excellent monthly income but with only 2 total accounts (both <5% utilization CCs) on his credit report (AAoA=4.5yrs). My sister has similar numbers but with 9 total accounts (slightly older AAoA). Would a bank want to see more accounts for my brother-in-law or does the couple have enough between the two of them? Would adding a fixed-installment loan or a new CC be worth adding to improve their credibility (after a year of waiting for the new credit inquiry to wear off)? Would adding them as an Authorized User to a family member's old CC be better? They are only about 5 points from 800 so we don't know what to do at this point. Maybe just waiting for the average age to increase would be fine.

Thanks for your advice!

[Jnbmom]

Their scores are well in range to purchase a home with a very good rate. There is no need to add anything and would not suggesting doing that .

As long as their income and job history is in tact and their DTI is within range they should be perfectly fine. 

[iv]

---

@Anonymous wrote:

My Sister and Brother-in-Law are preparing to buy a house in the next 1-3 years and I got their permission to get some advice from the forums. They want to know how important you think it is to get above 800 FICO score or if their 795 FICO and thin file is ok. I mentioned 800+ FICO seems to be the "top teir" for lowest APR on 30-year mortgages but I don't know if 795 is close enough

---

What Jnbmom said above...

But just to emphasize this - you don't need to be anywhere NEAR 800+ to get the best/lowest APR on a mortgage.

For most practical purposes everything over 740 is pretty much the same in terms of APR, and everything over 760 is pretty much the same in terms of mortgage insurance (if you are putting down less than 20%).

It sounds like your sister and B-I-L are in a perfect spot for a mortgage already. (And with current rates, it's great timing, too!)

[SouthJamaica]

---

@Anonymous wrote:

My Sister and Brother-in-Law are preparing to buy a house in the next 1-3 years and I got their permission to get some advice from the forums. They want to know how important you think it is to get above 800 FICO score or if their 795 FICO and thin file is ok. I mentioned 800+ FICO seems to be the "top teir" for lowest APR on 30-year mortgages but I don't know if 795 is close enough and no effort is needed besides maybe requesting a higher CC limit.

My Brother-in-law's median FICO 8 is 776 and his FICO5/4/2 median is 795 with excellent monthly income but with only 2 total accounts (both <5% utilization CCs) on his credit report (AAoA=4.5yrs). My sister has similar numbers but with 9 total accounts (slightly older AAoA). Would a bank want to see more accounts for my brother-in-law or does the couple have enough between the two of them? Would adding a fixed-installment loan or a new CC be worth adding to improve their credibility (after a year of waiting for the new credit inquiry to wear off)? Would adding them as an Authorized User to a family member's old CC be better? They are only about 5 points from 800 so we don't know what to do at this point. Maybe just waiting for the average age to increase would be fine.

Thanks for your advice!

---

They are fine where they are. Adding new accounts will not help them in any way.