I think I underestimated how important credit is for buying a first home
I always thought getting a house mostly came down to income and down payment, but now that we’re actually preparing to buy, I’m realizing how much credit affects literally everything. Our lender walked us through different rate scenarios and the monthly payment difference between score ranges honestly shocked me. Even being 20 or 30 points higher changes a lot.
Now I’m in full “future homeowner” mode trying to optimize everything before we apply. Paying balances down, checking reports constantly, trying to avoid random mistakes that could hurt us during underwriting. The stressful part is feeling like there’s no clear timeline. Some people say their scores jumped in a month while others say it took six months or more.
How far in advance did you seriously start working on your credit before buying? I’m sitting somewhere in the mid 600s right now and trying to figure out what’s realistically considered a solid score for getting a decent rate, from what I'm seeing 720 to 750 is a good one.