My husband and I are trying to buy our first home in Durham, NC. and FHA loan qualifications

Hello cee cee, FHA does have a minimum of 580 but all lenders have overlays which is a fancy term for, setting their own rules. The industry minimum is a middle score of 640 to qualify for an FHA loan. There are brokers that have FHA products down to a 620 mid score and or above but the down payment will be more, the guidlines are a lot stricter than normal FHA guidelines and the rate will be a lot higher then the national FHA average. My suggestion is to have someone or myslef take a look at your husbands credit report to see how we can get him 6 points on one of his credit scores to get him to qualify. That can be as easy as a 3 days process. I have a system called rapid re-scoring in which we can get your scores raised quicker then just paying off the debt and letting it report to the bureaus which can take up to 45 days. Please call me if you would like to take adavanatge of my free services!

Most banks will use the lowest middle score between the two borrowers. In your case a 634 would be the qualifying score. Making a few basic assumptions you should be fine getting an FHA loan. There are plenty lenders that go below 640. Best of luck in your home buying process!

Hi Cee CeeThere are lenders that are able to fund FHA insured loans with scores below 640, however, most of them are requiring 5% down to do so. Since the lowest middle score is 634, you should still be able to find a lender willing to lend between 620-640 scores and 3.5% down. If you have any trouble finding a lender, feel free to call on me. Good luck with your search. Patrick McCarthy, Northpointe Bank, 866-901-3576, PatrickM@Northpointe.com