Roll the approval dice now?

Hi all,

I just finished our 3rd round of disputes for my wife and my reports... with pretty much stellar results so far... we both started out with pretty much 550's across the board, but we've had 38 tradlines either updated to clean or deleted from our reports.

I'm at a 620 PG which is my worst report by far, but I've heard that PG scores are usually 20-50 pts lower that the acutal fico from Equifax. My wife is at 580, but again her equifax is even by further, the worst of her three.

Anyway, I was planning on doing another round before applying for the refinance (we're at 9.375) now, but with the rate jump I'm not sure I should wait another 30-40 days before applying since they could continue to climb.

Anyway, I'm looking for some advice...

1. Would you roll the dice now, or shoot for another round of disputes first in my situation? If I get declined, the worst I could expect is a 5pt drop for the mortgage inquiry - even if there are 6 or 7 of them, right?

2. Anyone know of any lenders who use the primary earner score for qualification, but will allow her to still be listed on the loan?

3. If I do apply, should I just take the shotgun approach and call several lenders/brokers in a row one right after the other? or should I wait to get an offer and then apply again if it doesn't seem so good?

4. I was thinking about doing a lending tree too just for kix... any downside to this?

5. I may end up having to go with a broker... the last time I dealt with one, they wanted 1% broker fee, 1% orig fee so the closing costs were alot. Are these typically negotiated, or is it just the cost of doing business with a broker?

6. Also, I know that lates in the last 12 months are a biggie... one of my reports has no lates in the last 12 months, the other two have different lates in the last 12 months. When lenders do this count, which report do the look at? The one that had the middle fico, or do they do a union of all lates across all reports?

Thanks!

 

Thanks - we're pretty happy with the results so far... just wish EQ was more agreeable

Unfortunately, no FHA... I've been wishing I had something like with WellsFargo & their streamline refi, but no luck - we're with HomeComings (yuk).

Thanks for the congrats - couldn't have done it without all of the great people here!

 

Just bought the myfico scores...

PG: 620
WK: 10

TU FICO: 670
EXP FICO: 666
EQ (ScorePower?): 577

I thought myfico gave true fico's... score power isn't a fico right?

I think I'm going to call some brokers tomorrow...

 

Just an update for anyone who has been following this thread... I went ahead and contacted a broker today.

When he pulled my numbers, he got the exact same scores that I received from myfico.com (670,666,577).

The problem is that on a mortgage lenders report, they get a UNION of any and all lates on ANY of the reports.

So - even though my TransUnion and Experian reports are almost clean, he was shown ALL of the lates (8 accounts) that are still on my Equifax report - from his perspective, he couldn't even tell which late came from which report.

Anyway, even with all of those lates - only 2 or 3 within the last 9 months, he would've been able to write the loan at 5.75.

The stumbling block is my current mortgage. I was 30 days 8 times all together and unfortunately 3 of them were within the last 12 months (11/02, 9/02, 8/02).

I got Homecomings deleted from TU, cleared of lates on EXP, but $&!! EFX kept all 8 lates on there throughout - since they merge the lates, he couldn't even tell that the other two reports were clean.

He said there are subprime options out there, but it'd be much better to go conforming... He wants me to do a goodwill request with Homecomings first to see if they'll null out some of the lates.

He also mentioned a "Fannie Mae Fallout" option which is kinda A- and would have a rate in the mid 6's...

...Kinda bummin...