Credit and your mortgage path

What moves the score

In rough order of weight:

• Payment history. On-time payments matter most. A single 30-day late can set you back; a 60-day or 90-day late more so.
• Utilization. What you owe on revolving credit (cards) relative to your limits. High utilization on individual cards or in aggregate suppresses the score even when you pay in full each month, because the snapshot can be taken before the payment posts.
• Length of credit history. Average age of accounts. Closing the oldest account can lower your average meaningfully.
• Mix of credit. Some installment + some revolving generally helps; all-revolving can be a mild drag.
• Recent inquiries and new credit. Several hard pulls in a short window can suppress the score temporarily.

Bracket-level expectations

Programs and pricing change. Roughly:

• 760+ is typically the “best pricing” bracket on conventional loans.
• 720–759 is still considered strong; pricing is good.
• 680–719 is solid for many programs; some adjustments may apply.
• 640–679 opens fewer doors and often costs more in pricing or insurance.
• Below 640 narrows options. Government-backed programs extend further into this range than conventional, but with their own trade-offs.

What's reasonable to expect about timing

It depends on what's on the report. A few patterns we see:

• Utilization fixes (paying down cards) can show up on the next reporting cycle, often weeks, not months.
• Account-aging fixes (don't close old accounts) take time but require no action.
• Disputed inaccuracies can resolve in one or two cycles when documentation supports the dispute.
• Late-payment recovery is mostly a function of time. Each year that passes from the late date softens its effect.

What we don't promise

We don't promise a specific score increase, and we don't guarantee that fixing one item changes the program you'll qualify for. We can talk through what's likely to move the needle in your situation, in what order, and what timing looks like.