What Credit Score Do You Need for a Mortgage in Henrico County?

Written by Duane Buziak, NMLS #1110647 | Coast2Coast Mortgage LLC NMLS #376205

You’ve been browsing homes in Short Pump on a Saturday afternoon. You find a place in Twin Hickory that checks every box. Then a quiet voice in the back of your head asks: “Is my credit score good enough to even apply?” You close the browser tab and tell yourself you’ll look into it later.

That hesitation costs more Henrico County buyers their dream home than almost anything else. The good news: there is no single magic number that determines whether you can get a mortgage. Different loan programs carry different minimum thresholds, and a local mortgage broker with access to multiple wholesale lenders can often find a path forward where a single-shelf lender simply cannot.

According to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, a credit score is a numerical summary of your credit history, used by lenders to assess the risk of lending to you. What the CFPB does not tell you is that the score you see on a free app is often not the same score a mortgage lender will pull, and the minimum that qualifies you for one program may be completely different for another.

Duane Buziak has been helping Henrico County families navigate exactly this question since 2014. As a mortgage broker, Duane can run a soft-pull pre-qualification that tells you exactly where you stand, across multiple loan programs, without placing a single hard inquiry on your credit file. No guessing. No score damage. Just a clear picture of your options before you ever set foot in an open house in Innsbrook or Glen Allen.

Here is what you need to know about credit scores and mortgages in Henrico County, broken down by loan program, pricing impact, and practical next steps.

Minimum Credit Score Thresholds by Loan Program

The first thing to understand is that “the minimum credit score for a mortgage” is not one number. It depends entirely on which loan program you are using. Here is how the major programs stack up.

FHA Loans: The Federal Housing Administration sets its own floor through HUD guidelines (FHA Single Family Housing Policy Handbook 4000.1). Borrowers with a score of 580 or higher can qualify for the 3.5% minimum down payment. Borrowers with scores between 500 and 579 may still qualify, but the required down payment rises to 10%. FHA loans are particularly relevant in Lakeside, Tuckahoe, and Glen Allen entry-level markets, where buyers are often purchasing their first home and may have a shorter or imperfect credit history.

VA Loans: The Department of Veterans Affairs does not set a minimum credit score requirement for VA-guaranteed home loans. You can confirm this directly at VA.gov. However, individual lenders and brokers apply their own overlays, and in practice most require a score of 580 to 620. This matters significantly in Henrico County, given the presence of the Defense Logistics Agency Richmond, which creates a meaningful active-duty and veteran buyer population throughout the county. If you or your spouse have served, a VA loan is often the most powerful program available, and the score threshold is more accessible than many buyers assume.

Conventional Loans (Fannie Mae / Freddie Mac): The published minimum for most conventional loan scenarios is 620, per the Fannie Mae Selling Guide. But the story does not end at approval. Conventional pricing improves significantly as your score climbs, with the most favorable pricing tiers beginning around 740 and above. The 2026 baseline conforming loan limit is $806,500, per the FHFA, which covers a wide range of Henrico County purchase prices. Buyers in Wyndham or the River Road corridor looking at higher-priced properties should pay close attention to where their score falls within the pricing tiers, not just whether they clear the minimum.

USDA Loans: USDA Rural Development typically requires a 640 score for automated underwriting approval through the Guaranteed Underwriting System (GUS), per USDA Rural Development guidelines. USDA eligibility is geographically restricted, but portions of eastern Henrico County and surrounding areas may qualify. If you are uncertain whether a specific property falls within a USDA-eligible zone, that is exactly the kind of program-matching question Duane can answer in a pre-qualification conversation.

Why Your Score Affects More Than Just Approval

Clearing the minimum score threshold gets you in the door. But where your score lands within the approved range has a direct and measurable impact on what you actually pay every month. This is where buyers often leave real money on the table.

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac use a system called Loan-Level Price Adjustments, or LLPAs. These are add-on costs to your loan’s pricing based on factors including credit score, loan-to-value ratio, and property type. The LLPA grids are published publicly at Fannie Mae’s website. A buyer with a 699 score is treated differently than a buyer with a 720 score, even though the gap is only 21 points.

Here is a worked example using real loan parameters. Assume a $450,000 purchase price in Glen Allen, 20% down ($90,000), with a $360,000 conventional 30-year fixed-rate loan.

Using Fannie Mae’s published LLPA matrix, a borrower with a 699 score at 80% LTV carries a higher LLPA cost than a borrower at 720. The LLPA difference between the 680–699 and 720–739 score bands at 80% LTV is 0.875 percentage points in fee cost on the loan amount. On a $360,000 loan, that translates to $3,150 in additional upfront cost. Lenders typically convert that fee into a higher interest rate rather than collecting it at closing. At a standard conversion, that 0.875-point fee difference can shift your rate by approximately 0.125% to 0.25%, depending on the rate environment.

At a 0.25% rate difference, the monthly principal and interest payment on $360,000 at 7.0% is approximately $2,395. At 7.25%, that same loan costs approximately $2,458 per month. That is a $63 monthly difference, or $756 per year, adding up to more than $22,000 over the life of a 30-year loan. All from a 21-point score gap.

Score also affects private mortgage insurance pricing on conventional loans. PMI premiums are tiered by credit score, and a lower score means a higher monthly PMI cost on top of the rate difference. The combination of a higher rate and higher PMI can meaningfully affect how much home a buyer in Henrico County can realistically afford.

This is where working with a broker rather than a single-shelf lender creates a tangible financial advantage. Different wholesale lenders price their LLPA grids differently, and a broker can shop the same borrower profile across multiple lenders to find the one whose pricing grid treats a 680 or 699 score more favorably. A single-shelf lender has one grid. A broker has access to many.

The Three Credit Scores Mortgage Lenders Actually Use

Here is something that surprises many first-time buyers: the credit score you see on your bank’s app or a free monitoring service is probably not the score your mortgage lender will use. Understanding this gap can prevent a lot of confusion and disappointment.

Mortgage lenders pull what is called a tri-merge credit report, which means they request your credit file from all three major bureaus: Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion. Each bureau produces its own score. The lender then uses the middle score of the three, not the highest. If your three scores are 672, 689, and 704, your qualifying score is 689.

When two borrowers apply together, the process has an additional step. Each borrower gets their own middle score, and then the lender uses the lower of the two middle scores as the qualifying score for the loan. This is a critical detail for couples buying together in Wyndham or along the River Road corridor. If one partner has a 740 middle score and the other has a 618 middle score, the loan qualifies at 618. That can affect both the program you qualify for and the pricing tier you land in.

The second major source of confusion is the difference between FICO scores and VantageScores. Free credit monitoring apps, many bank portals, and consumer credit services typically display a VantageScore. Mortgage lenders do not use VantageScore. They use specific FICO models: FICO Model 2 from Experian, FICO Model 4 from TransUnion, and FICO Model 5 from Equifax. These are older, mortgage-specific scoring models, and they can produce scores that are noticeably different from the VantageScore you see on an app.

It is common for a buyer to come in believing their score is 720 based on a consumer app, only to find their mortgage FICO scores average closer to 690. That gap can shift which pricing tier applies and, in some cases, which programs are available. Knowing your actual mortgage FICO score before you start shopping is one of the most valuable things a pre-qualification conversation can provide, especially when it is done through a soft pull that does not affect your score at all.

How to Improve Your Score Before You Apply

If your current score is not where you need it to be, the situation is rarely permanent. There are concrete, fast-acting steps that can move the needle before you apply for a mortgage in Henrico County.

Rapid Rescore: This is one of the most underutilized tools in the mortgage process. When a borrower pays down a credit card balance or corrects an error on their credit report, the change does not automatically show up on the next mortgage credit pull. A mortgage broker can request a rapid rescore through the credit bureaus, which forces an expedited update to the credit file. Results typically come back within a few business days, not months. This can be the difference between qualifying for a better rate tier before a rate lock expires or losing a purchase contract. This is a service that single-shelf lenders often cannot facilitate as efficiently as an independent broker.

Credit Utilization: Utilization is the ratio of your revolving balance to your credit limit, and it is one of the fastest-moving components of your FICO score. Keeping individual card balances below 30% of their limit, and ideally below 10%, is a high-leverage move. A $500 paydown on a credit card with a $1,000 limit can move a score meaningfully within a single billing cycle. If you are a buyer in Deep Run Park or Dorey Park who is close to a score threshold, this is often the first place to look.

Avoid New Credit Activity: Between pre-qualification and closing, do not open new credit accounts, do not co-sign for anyone else’s loan or lease, and do not make large purchases on existing credit cards. Each of these actions can lower your score or raise your debt-to-income ratio at exactly the wrong moment. Henrico buyers who have already found their home and are under contract have derailed their own closings by financing furniture or a new vehicle before the loan funds. The rule is simple: no new credit until after you have the keys.

Dispute Errors: Errors on credit reports are more common than most people realize. A collection account that was paid, a balance reported higher than it actually is, or an account that belongs to someone else entirely can all suppress your score. Reviewing your credit report before you apply, and disputing any inaccuracies through the appropriate bureau, is a step that costs nothing and can produce meaningful score improvements.

Credit Score Floors After Major Financial Events

A past financial hardship does not permanently disqualify you from homeownership. What it does is create a waiting period, and understanding those timelines is essential for planning your path back to buying in Henrico County.

Bankruptcy: A Chapter 7 bankruptcy discharge starts a 2-year waiting period for FHA and VA loans, and a 4-year waiting period for conventional financing. Chapter 13 bankruptcy, which involves a repayment plan, has different timelines depending on the loan program. The important thing to know is that your credit score often recovers faster than the waiting period expires. Starting credit repair immediately after discharge, rather than waiting until the waiting period is almost over, positions you to qualify at a better pricing tier when you are finally eligible.

Foreclosure and Short Sale: Waiting periods vary by loan type. FHA typically requires 3 years from the foreclosure completion date. Conventional loans generally require 7 years from the foreclosure date, though a short sale or deed-in-lieu may carry a shorter waiting period depending on circumstances. Again, score recovery and waiting period timelines do not always align, and the buyers who come out of these situations in the strongest position are the ones who began rebuilding their credit profile early rather than waiting until the waiting period ended.

Late Payments and Collections: A single 30-day late payment can drop a score by 60 to 100 points, depending on the overall profile. The impact fades over time, but recent late payments carry significantly more weight than older ones. On the collections side, there is meaningful nuance for Henrico buyers: under updated Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac guidelines, medical collections under $500 are excluded from credit score calculations in newer FICO models. This is a detail that matters for buyers who have older medical debt on their file. Confirm the current status of these guidelines at FHFA.gov, as policy updates can affect how these accounts are treated in underwriting.

Check Your Starting Point Without Hurting Your Score

The single most common reason Henrico County buyers delay starting the mortgage process is fear that checking their credit will hurt their score. That fear is understandable, but it does not have to stop you.

Duane Buziak offers a soft-pull pre-qualification, which means you can find out exactly where you stand, across multiple loan programs and lenders, without a hard inquiry ever appearing on your credit file. This is called a NoTouch Credit Pull, and it is a structural advantage that most single-shelf lenders and direct lenders cannot match. Their pre-approval process typically requires a hard pull upfront, before you have even decided whether to move forward.

The difference matters. A hard inquiry can lower your score by a few points and remains visible on your credit report for two years. When you are trying to optimize your score before a purchase in Short Pump or Innsbrook, protecting every point counts.

Frequently Asked Questions: Credit Scores and Mortgages in Henrico County

1. What is the minimum credit score to buy a house in Virginia?

There is no single statewide minimum. The threshold depends on the loan program: FHA loans require a minimum 580 for 3.5% down, VA loans have no VA-mandated minimum (though lender overlays typically start at 580–620), conventional loans generally require 620, and USDA loans require 640 for automated underwriting. Virginia buyers have access to all of these programs depending on location, eligibility, and financial profile.

2. Can I get a mortgage with a 580 credit score in Henrico County?

Yes, in many cases. A 580 score qualifies for an FHA loan with 3.5% down under HUD guidelines, and it falls within the typical lender overlay range for VA loans for eligible veterans and active-duty service members. Working with a broker who has access to multiple wholesale lenders increases the likelihood of finding a program that fits a 580 profile, since individual lenders set their own overlays above the program minimums.

3. What credit score do I need for a VA loan?

The VA itself does not set a minimum credit score requirement, as confirmed at VA.gov. Individual lenders and brokers apply their own overlays, which commonly start at 580 to 620. If you are a veteran or active-duty service member connected to the Defense Logistics Agency Richmond or another Henrico-area installation, a VA loan is worth exploring regardless of where your score currently sits.

4. How much does a lower credit score raise my mortgage rate?

The impact is real and measurable. On a $360,000 conventional loan, the LLPA difference between a 699 score and a 720 score can translate to a rate difference of approximately 0.125% to 0.25%, which adds up to hundreds of dollars per year and thousands over the life of the loan. The exact impact depends on the current LLPA grid, loan-to-value ratio, and the lender’s rate sheet.

5. Does checking my credit score hurt my mortgage application?

A soft pull, like the one used in Duane Buziak’s NoTouch pre-qualification, does not affect your score at all. A hard pull, which is what most lenders require for a formal pre-approval, can lower your score by a few points and stays on your report for two years. Checking your own score through a consumer app or monitoring service is always a soft pull and never affects your mortgage application.

6. What is the difference between my credit score and my mortgage credit score?

The score you see on free apps is typically a VantageScore. Mortgage lenders use specific FICO models: FICO 2 (Experian), FICO 4 (TransUnion), and FICO 5 (Equifax). These are older, mortgage-specific models that can produce scores noticeably different from consumer-facing scores. It is common for a buyer to believe their score is 720 based on a monitoring app and find their mortgage FICO middle score is closer to 690. A mortgage pre-qualification will show you your actual mortgage scores.

7. How long does it take to raise my credit score enough to qualify?

It depends on what is suppressing your score. Paying down a high-utilization credit card can produce score movement within a single billing cycle, sometimes 30 to 60 days. Correcting a credit report error through a rapid rescore can take as little as a few business days. Recovering from a major event like a bankruptcy or foreclosure takes longer, but consistent positive credit behavior over 12 to 24 months can produce significant improvement. Starting the conversation early gives you a roadmap rather than a surprise.

8. Can I get a mortgage after a bankruptcy or foreclosure in Virginia?

Yes. Waiting periods apply, but they are finite. A Chapter 7 bankruptcy discharge starts a 2-year clock for FHA and VA loans and a 4-year clock for conventional. A completed foreclosure typically requires 3 years for FHA and 7 years for conventional. The key is to begin rebuilding your credit immediately after the event, so that when the waiting period ends, your score is positioned to qualify at a favorable pricing tier rather than just the minimum threshold.

Your Next Step Starts with a Single Conversation

There is no single credit score that unlocks homeownership in Henrico County. The right threshold depends on the loan program, the lender’s pricing grid, and your complete financial picture. A 580 may be the right starting point for one buyer, while another buyer at 699 may benefit enormously from a targeted push to 720 before locking in a rate.

What matters is knowing exactly where you stand before you start touring homes. Duane Buziak has been helping Henrico County families find their footing in this process since 2014, operating as a mortgage broker through Coast2Coast Mortgage with access to multiple wholesale lenders. That access means more program options, more pricing flexibility, and a better chance of finding a path that a single-shelf lender simply cannot offer.

The NoTouch Credit Pull pre-qualification means you can get a clear, honest answer about your options without a single point of score impact. Call 804-212-8663 or get pre-qualified today to find out exactly where you stand before you start touring homes in Short Pump or Innsbrook.