Anyone who has bought a house?

we're trying to pre qualify right now.

LONG story short, my husbands credit score went down like 100 points because when we moved last time we racked up a pretty good balance on two of our credit cards.  (we only have 2 cards that have a thousand dollar limit but we are at 800 and 900 with both of them).  The loan guy we talked to was FLOORED because the credit score was so low, he said he has seen higher on people in bankruptcy.  He said besides the actual number, our report is spotless, never a late payment, no leans, collections ect ect.  So he called the credit people and they said all we had to do to bring it up about 80 points was to pay down the balance. We have the money to do that right now. 

My question, has anyone had to "fix" their credit score before qualifying, and how long did it take?  Our lease is up in July so we are hoping to be outta here by then. 

O an we're trying to get a USDA (farmers) loan of a FHA loan.  TIA

It depends on when your credit card companies report to the credit unions.  After you pay it down and the CCs report it, your score will change instantly.  Good luck with everything....the way credit is set up in this country is a travesty.  I hope you're able to get a good rate on your loan and find a great house!

Also, another little piece of advice, they say you should leave a small balance on your cards or it can negatively affect your score. (why? because they want to see that you have debt to manage)  You can look it up online, but I think it's somewhere between 10-20% of your available credit.

Like PP said. If you pay something off all in one, it does look bad on your credit. I do not know the reason to me it does not make sense to me. I do not know why they would tell you to do that. We had a loan for 20K and paid it off all at one time, well it dropped our credit score! Made us look bad for paying something off. If you bring the balance down on both of them, it would look better and make payments for a couple months or even send in 2 a month.

Thanks! and yea he said not to pay the whole thing but bring them both down a little bit now and then bring them down a little bit in like a month.  Being that we really dont have that much debt i honestly do NOT understand how 2 small credit cards can mess up credit that bad...

It is all about debt to income ratio.

Yes- had to work on our credit.  Husband's ex decided to run up all kinds of things in his name, and he was already divorced (they had gone through bankruptcy).  Mine was less then stellar due to some college debut issues- we did it over several months.  We had to write letters to explain some situations and pay on a few cards.  We were lucky enough to get our loan- and then refinance when the time was write.  Buying a home is all kinds of stress!  I'd rather live somewhere where someone else fixes things, and they are responsible-I'm crazy like that!  I've gotten used to home ownership and my girls have a happy stable place to call home-no crazy neighbors like we had every time we moved.  Good luck!

Thanks Jenn.  My father is a realtor and has been one for 25 years.  I am lucky enough to finally have him helping us out.  But obv he has nothing to do with the mortgage.  Initially I wanted to rent a house, not an apartment or condo.  Then I was at his office and he told me we could prob get a USDA loan for no down payment.  It's scary thinking about having to be responsible for things when they go wrong,  but I am sick of not feeling permanent anywhere!

Yes, we had to work on our score before we bought our house. We paid off all of our credit cards and got rid of them. We haven't had credit cards in years. Now our credit is bad because we are losing our house. Since we had Lorelai, we have not been able to afford our mortgage plus daycare (and it would be worse if one of us stopped working to stay home with her). We are both fine with losing the house and the mortgage company doesn't seem concerned that we'll have an issue buying another if 7 years or so since so many people are losing their houses right now. We were too young when we bought it and we are pretty bad homeowners. Anyway...this post is about you, not me. I just want to tell you to be careful. We rushed into our house. We really wanted a house and ended buying more of a house than we can handle. Please remember that, just because you are approved for a certain amount, does not mean you can actually afford the monthly payments along with the increased utilities payments and home repairs. The banks are a little too quick to approve people for amounts they can't really afford (although they might be better at that now since we bought right before the market fell). I am not trying to tell you not to buy a house. I think it's a great idea, I am just trying to share the mistakes I made so hopefully you won't make the same ones.
Good luck! I hope you find the perfect place and can get a good loan!
Tina 

When we bought our house, we were also told that our credit history looks great, no late payments, etc. But that our debt to income ratio was not good. So maybe by paying off a credit card or two, it will lower that debt to income ratio and make it look better for buying a house.

Thanks Tami.  We just heard form our loan guy.  That was the issue so I just paid both of them down halfway which was actually better than paying them both off.  He said it should raise the score 77 points which would put him back in good credit but we might need to wait until June to get any loan because my husbands credit has to be over a year old.