CE750

you mortgage broker are becoming worse than used car salesman, and lawyers in the food chain!

Seriously, these companies keep calling my house like clockwork at the same time with their bloody autodial systems than when you answer, you get nobody on the line! What a waste of their money and my time! Dynasty mortgage is a big one these days with this crap!

Vader55

It's all the same stuff. Junk mail,Telemarketing, spam e-mail.. I get it all.

zoink

FICO is developed by Fair Isaac - a credit scoring company. Since each of the three bureaus (Experian, Trans Union and Equifax) captures, categorizes and stores data differently plus the data quality are quite different, Fair Isaac develops the statistical models for each of the bureau. The structure of the scorecards (or credit segments) is the same.... but the same credit segment may use different factors from each bureau depending on what data stand out to discriminate the good credit vs. bad credit.

Once the statistical models developed, they try to scale them the same across the bureau.... so score of 700 means the same (or similar) thing.

As I stated earlier, since there are data inconsistencies among the bureaus, the max. possible score is different. But you could generalize the score range to be 350-950.

Try not to close your accounts (even if you don't use it) if you have balance in other accounts because one of the well-known and powerful variable used in FICO is utilization (ratio of your balance to your credit limit). So if you close your accounts, it makes your credit limit lower, thus, higher utilization, thus, you are deemed to be higher risk than you are before.

Good rule of thumbs for something that you could control...
- Pay all debts on time
- Sum of all your debt divided by your credit limit (credit and retail cards - not including mortgage, equity line, student loans, etc.) should be around 5%.
- Don't put too many inquiries.... if you shop for mortgage or car loans, better shop in ONE day.... all bureaus will only keep ONE (even though you put 10 inquiries) at the end of the day

Hope it helps some members here.... If you want to know more, just ask in this thread... hopefully, I could answer.

Disclaimer: I am not a Fair Isaac employee.... only someone who has been in financial service industry for years

Chappy

Any more detail on this? I may be in the market for a new house next year and want to be in the best possible position, credit-wise.

I pulled my 3 scores at myfico.com and are 748/765/781. What % of my gross monthly should I "max out" with a mortgage?

Brav

Those are good scores- it will be hard to knowlingly manipulate them any better.

As far as what you can afford- all up to you, and your local RE market. Just remember to take into account for taxes, insurance, etc. People with higher disposable income will tel you 30% or so, but it may not be realistic for your income, needs, housing, etc. Just make sure that when you calc your budget you have a nice coushin every month of excess income

C240-Merc

Is anyone interested in 100% investment loans? I was with Countrywide Financial for 2 1/2 years until I moved onto Aegis Mortgage Corp. and we offer them.

Brav

1st of all, thanks for the plug... 2nd off, 0 down investment loan is pretty stupid, and non-cost-effective. 3rd, we can do them as well, so can many others.