Your FICO score and loan-to-value

Nearly all lenders, whether conforming or subprime, use your FICO score to determine the loan-to-value that you can borrow to. For most lenders these guidelines are accross the board with the exception of a some niche lenders that may allow slightly higher loan-to-values.

Some lenders out there will even take an average of your 3 credit scores instead of using one particular credit score to determine how high of a LTV, loan to value, they will allow on a mortgage loan. For 2 borrowers they will even add up all 3 credit scores for each borrower together and then take an overall average to come up with one credit score that they will use to determine what mortgage parameters you will qualify for. Therefore, if one partner has poor credit but makes all or most of the money and the other has excellent credit but makes little to no money, by using a combined average for both borrowers it may help the borrowers to qualify for a better loan or a higher LTV. Ask your mortgage professional if you have any questions about how this works.

Most lenders take your mid-score, or the middle score of the 3 scores reported by the bureaus. However, some lenders are willing to take the highest of the 3 scores, which sometimes can end up being the difference between a deal or no deal, or a deal and a good deal.

Another factor that is used with your FICO score to determine how much you can borrow (your LTV)is what type of documentation is being used. Full Doc means you are submitting W-2's and pay stubs, or tax returns if self employed, and you are documenting your assets with bank or brokerage statements. A Full Doc loan will allow for a higher LTV than a Stated Doc loan with the same FICO score.

For those individuals with less than perfect credit, non-conforming lenders allow loans up to sometimes 95% of their property's value.

Certain criteria must be met and these individuals should expect to pay slightly higher charges in closing costs and having a slightly higher note rate. It is also not uncommon for these non-conforming loans to have a pre-payment penalty.

The common cut-off score for 100% financing is a 580 score. There are some programs that vary slightly from this number, and the programs are always changing, so this is not set in stone.