My wife and I were just pre-approved to buy a new home! We were approved through Wells Fargo Financial and qualified for their best rates. We are planning on purchasing a brand new home and this was the builders designated lender (we will receive $3k off of our closing costs by going through them). I am so happy to finally have good enough credit to be easily approved. A year ago I would have cringed if someone said, "I need to do a credit check". I started my credit re-building in July of this year and was fairly successful in clearing up my CRs: July Scores EQ - 680 EXP - 623 FAKO TU - 629 FAKO October Scores EQ - 703 EXP - 715 FAKO; 730 FICO TU - 759 FAKO; 737 FICO I still have one collection on EQ and 2 30 day late payments that are 2 and 4 years old on all 3 CRs. First, I wanted to thank all of the wonderful people on this board that have helped me (and all others). Secondly, are there some other mortgage co. out there I should check into to try to beat Wells Fargo's rates (I will receive a package from them early next week outling our possible alternatives). We are looking at all alternatives including 3% or 5% down, 80/15/5 loan (or other variations such as 80/20). We are trying to put the least amount down while avoiding PMI. My wife is a teacher if that matter (for special programs). Thanks again
Thanks Butch, I am going to check into other rates once I see the WF package. They said I should receive a rate of about 6 1/8%, which seems kinda high in my area (Northern CA). I have seen rates in the mid to high 5's with no points. Hopefully I can get WF to match. By the way to all, my EQ and TU FICO scores the lender pulled matched my online FICO scores exactly. The pleasant surprise was the 15 point increase on my EX FICO score over the FAKO score (730 compared to 715). Especially considering that 720 was the cutoff for the best rates.
How does a prospective lender figure what the credit score is? Do they pull all 3 & average them or?? The reason I'm asking is that I have a 777 Equifax (and Beacon 69) score, a 718 TU score, but then I've got a lousy 669 Experian score I'm trying to get straightened out. Would that 669 score kill me? I want to buy a house next May & have about $55,000 cash to put down & those scores. Will I have a problem??
Does your wife teach in a public school? The State Teachers Retirement System (STRS) has financing programs for teachers that are pretty decent. Also, Bank of America has special programs for teachers in their wholesale department; I don't know if they do them retail, but it is worth checking into.
Bank of America has special programs for teachers. You might try them. I just closed a loan with them this past week.
Congrats Baday Check out B of A, Chase and also I thnk there are a couple of Ca specific programs to look into. Be very careful though about having to many lenders pull credit as that will lower your scores. What you may want to do is pull them yourself and take them with you. Ask them what they can do based upon the credit report you show them. If you don't like the response then go somewhere else. If you do then maybe you will let them pull themselves. fla-tan