My husband and I have been trying to get approved for an FHA loan for 2 years now, we have done everything that our mortgage broker told us to do to fix our scores, we called in January and he said we were close, and we needed to do 2 more things to get qualified, ie. at that time our scores need to be over 580, I was over, my husband was not. Now today, my husband called to see how close we are and now our scores have to be over 620. Can anyone tell me if this is correct information we are getting......
Thank you all for your advice, we got approved, so now the hunt is on......
I thought that was effective April 1? Just what I heard...a friend of mine is doing a refi and that's what she was told.
Hi T.,
I'm also a loan officer, and I'd have to say your broker is about 95% correct. Most brokers, as well as some banks, want to see your score at a minimum of 620. However, there are a few lenders, such as myself, who may have some programs for a score at 600 rather than 620. A lot of it depends on your compensating factors.
If you'd like to chat more, feel free to email me.
Good luck!!
J.
I'm no expert but as you know, banks aren't practically giving out money anymore and are requiring stricter standards when it comes to lending. I would not be surprised to hear that 2 years ago, lower credit scores would be acceptable for lending but now that many banks (and homeowners) got burned by bad loans, they're wanting more of a 'sure thing' and are more selective when it comes to lending money.
You haven't done anything wrong; economic times have changed and you're paying the price in having to wait longer/work harder.
Yes, that information is correct. Keep working at it....you'll get there.
Yes. I read the home sections on the weekends to get tips and info on morgage changes. This was actually effective a few months ago-maybe even last summer. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac changed their rules for down payments and required scores for qualifying. If you can, do a search for FHA or Fannie Mae plus requirements. Bankrate.com might also have something on their site.
I'm a lender and the information you received is mostly true. Most investors have tightened up their guidelines in the last few weeks and are now requiring a 620. We can still do 580, but there are pretty big pricing hits to do a score that low and I honestly don't even know how long it will be around. For most investors, we received notice on or about March 3rd that anyone below 620 had to be locked by March 5th. (my dates may be off, we received notice on the Tuesday and had until Thursday to lock) That certainly doesn't give us enough notice to call everyone that we pre-qualified and have them find a house, put in an offer and get it accepted! All we can do is lock the ones that already have found a property and move on. But like I said, we are still doing 580, depending on what is on the credit to make it that low, but I just couldn't guarantee that it wouldn't change in a week. Feel free to contact me if you'd like more info.
