My husband and I paid off our mortgage a few years ago after 17 years of mortgage payments and became 100% debt free. Woohoo!
But recently, an opportunity crossed our path to make a deal on a home that had been on the market for over 5 months in our “dream” neighborhood. We decided that we want to stay in this area for retirement, and this home checked off a lot of boxes and would enable our kids to stay in the same school.
However, we agreed that we didn’t want to try to sell our house while we were still living in it. With kids and pets and work and the holidays, we couldn’t handle that. So, we needed to apply for a mortgage for the new house that we could mostly pay off after we sell our old house.
Getting approved for a mortgage
Since we hadn’t planned on applying for a mortgage again, my husband and I have not been holding back on applying for new credit cards for the miles and points bonuses. In fact, we both just got new credit cards 2 months ago. Would we even be approved for a mortgage?
Yes! We had no issues getting approved for the lowest interest rate. Despite all of our new credit cards over the past few years for miles and points, both of our credit scores stayed in the low 800s/high700s. I was surprised that the lender did not even question why our credit reports have so many inquiries and new accounts. Maybe it’s because we are 50 years old and have ~30 years of credit history.
Once we were approved for a mortgage, we did refrain from opening or closing any credit cards until after we closed on the new house. The day after we closed on the house, we did cancel two credit cards we didn’t want to keep that had annual fees hitting this month. And, I will likely apply for a new credit card with a high signup bonus soon.
This was just our experience, and your mileage may vary depending on your own credit history. Now, I better get back to packing!
Author: Nancy
Nancy lives near Dallas, Texas, with her husband and three kids. Her favorite vacations include the beach, cruising and everything Disney.
Whoooa…thank u Daddy! Good news!
I am a loan officer. The number of accounts / credit cards has nothing to do with your approval odds. All that is looked at is credit score and debt to income ratio (in context to this article). In the DTI context it is only the minumum monthly payment that is used to calculate.
Congratulations!! I always wonder too (about a home loan). This situation also came across a few months ago, but didn’t happen. Good to know. Thank you for the post!