Turned down on the home loan?

Hi everyone, I have a friend of mine that needs a loan for his new home. The other day, when he applied for the loan, he was turned down due to his low credit score. In fact, he had no ideas on the credit scores being such important for the home loans. He has sought advice to make them better and so I thought of making a point here and getting suggestions on this matter. Hope, I would get the required suggestions to make them better.

Well this is an old post but here it goes:

Pay all debts up to date...DONT close out accounts especially older ones...they boost the scores.  Make sure they are reported as paid up to date.  It is best to have low balances...pay down high debts meaning if you have a card at $10k limit and owe 9900 on it...pay it down as much as can be and do the same for others.  Stop opening new accounts.  That does not help.