Your FHA loan questions, answered like you deserve to be answered.

FHA's own floor is 580 for the minimum 3.5% down payment, and 500 to 579 with 10% down. Many lenders privately require 620 or higher - that is their overlay, not FHA. If you were quoted a higher number, you heard one company's policy. Full picture on the credit score page.

Yes. FHA allows a file built on non-traditional credit - 12 months of rent, utilities, phone, and insurance payments - reviewed by a human through manual underwriting. No score is not the same as bad credit, and HUD wrote rules for exactly this.

Usually not. FHA does not require most collections to be paid. If your non-medical collections total more than $2,000, the underwriter counts 5% of the balance in your debt ratio or uses a documented payment plan - but paying in full is rarely mandatory. Judgments are stricter: paid, or on a documented plan. Details on the collections page.

Medical collections are excluded from FHA's $2,000 collections math entirely, and charge-offs are exempt from the 5% rule too. If a lender told you a stack of hospital bills killed your file, that was not FHA talking.

Yes, you can apply alone - your spouse's credit score never has to enter the file. The catch is income and, in community property states, some of their debts may still count in your ratios. In most of our licensed states this is a clean, common play. Worth one short call to map, subject to eligibility and lender guidelines.

The baseline guideline is 31% housing / 43% total - but with compensating factors, FHA's automated system approves files up to 46.9% / 56.9%. If someone flatly quoted you "43% max," you got the first page of the rulebook. The rest is on the DTI page.

Since 2021, FHA uses your actual payment from the credit report - and if it shows $0 or deferred, just 0.5% of the balance instead of the old punishing 1%. On $60,000 of deferred loans, that is $300 a month instead of $600. If you were denied under the old math, rerun it: the student loan page.

Yes. FHA allows a non-occupying co-borrower - typically family - whose income and credit are added to yours. It is one of the fastest legitimate DTI fixes there is. Rules and cautions on the co-borrower page.

FHA documents a 2-year work history, but it does not require 2 years at one employer or an unbroken line. Job changes in the same field read as a career; gaps for school, illness, caregiving, or a layoff are workable with a short letter of explanation. See the employment page.

Yes - typically with 2 years of self-employment history and tax returns, sometimes 1 year with strong offsetting factors. The trap is write-offs: you qualify on your net income, not your gross deposits, and how add-backs are calculated is where careless denials happen. Details on the self-employed page.

Prequalification is a conversation; preapproval is verified paperwork - credit pulled, income documented, an underwriting-grade read on your file. Sellers take preapprovals seriously and ignore prequalifications. If you were "prequalified" and later denied, this gap is likely what happened.

Typically 30 to 45 days from contract, about the same as any mortgage. Manual underwrites can add a little time because a person reviews every document. The real speed lever is preparation - files with organized documents close on schedule.

Two things: the home's value, and HUD's minimum property requirements - safety, security, and structural soundness. Peeling paint on a pre-1978 home, missing handrails, a roof at the end of its life, or dead mechanical systems get flagged. Most flags are repairable before closing: the property requirements page.

For a single-family home: $541,287 in standard-cost counties, up to $1,249,125 in the highest-cost counties, with county-by-county variation between. Limits are higher for 2-4 unit properties. Effective for case numbers assigned on or after January 1, 2026.

FHA's mortgage insurance: 1.75% upfront (usually financed into the loan) plus roughly 0.50% to 0.55% per year paid monthly on most 30-year loans. With less than 10% down it lasts the life of the loan; with 10%+ down it drops after 11 years. Many buyers later refinance to conventional to shed it - the honest comparison is on FHA vs conventional.