@Anonymous wrote:First time post so forgive me if this is laid out somewhere else. I need to know the best steps to get the largest jump in my mortgage score. I would like to apply in April but I’m not sure that I will be ready. I’ve listed my information below. Any assistance is greatly appreciated. After reading through the forums I was thinking that I may need to apply for another credit card. Use it and pay it off for a few months to see some movement. The only actual credit card I had was closed. I would also like to contact my baddies and offer a PIF negotiation of $500. My DTI with rent is 34%.
CC:
USAA Credit Card – Closed: CL $8,500 Balance $909 Age: Opened 2001
Macys – Current: CL $300 Balance: $0 (PD Off-2/14/19) - Shows $99 Balance on 3B as of 3/1/19
BestBuy – Current: CL $450 Balance: $0 (PD Off-2/14/19)
Care Credit – Current: CL $1,500 Balance: $0 (PD Off-2/14/19) - Shows $1,028 Balance on 3B as of 3/1/19
Victoria Secret – Current: CL $3,000 Balance: $0 (PD Off – 2/14/19) - Shows $74 Balance on 3B as of 3/1/19
Lowes-Authorized User-Current: CL: $9,000 Balance: $0
I have some others that pull that are closed in the past due to inactivity. Those are Rooms to Go (CL:$2,000), Lowe's (CL: $3,160), Lowe's (CL:$1,800) JCPennys (CL: $3,780)
Auto:
NationWide/First Investors Service – Orig Loan: $30,799 Balance: $23,554
Student Loans:
Balance: $47,920 – I am currently in school and these don’t require payments but I have made a few payments. I plan to cut this balance in half by May 2020.
Baddies:
Professional Finance Co (Touchstone Imaging)
Date of service: 6/23/17
Date added to report: 12/18/17
Balance: $569
Professional Finance Co (Touchstone Imaging)
Date of service: Unknown
Date added to report: 12/18/17
Balance: $237
HP's - Hoping these all drop soon
Nissan - 3/27/17
Fenton Nissan - 3/31/17
Nationwide - 3/31/17
Coaf - 3/31/17
Credit Plus - 4/9/18
The best things you could do between now and your mortgage application are:
1. get rid of the negatives
2. not apply for any new credit
3. make sure all revolvers but one report zero
4. pay any closed accounts to zero
But in the short time frame you're talking about, you're not going to be able to get it done.
Welcome, @Anonymous. 
Don't apply for any new credit. Your file has plenty of thickness. More importantly, you don't want to kick your AoYA (age of youngest account) to zero. There's a nifty FICO bonus of about 20 points when your AoYA reaches a year. If you have these points already, you don't want to lose them. If you don't have them yet, your most recent inquiry indicates that they may be coming up soon.
Your inquiries are in great shape. There's only one that's still scorable, and it'll stop affecting your score on its anniversary date next month.
As mentioned, show a small positive balance on one revolver with the rest reporting zero. It looks like you've done the heavy lifting as far as reducing your balances.
Also, pay attention to your next month's statements for any trailing interest. Make sure that's paid off immediately, and keep watching your statements until they show a balance of zero.
You don't have a lot of time to get the baddies removed, but you should still educate yourself on the Saturation Technique and ask questions in the Rebuilding forum.
You mention "3B." Do you have access to your most recent mortgage scores?