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Do the Easy Work

Reserves
If you don't have at least three months' worth of mortgage payments in liquid assets, your credit score is less than 700 and you have a relative or VERY close friend who has enough money in the bank to suffice for your reserves, consider asking her to add your name to her accounts. It takes a single trip to the bank, her willingness to sign a document attesting to the fact that she is giving you access to all the funds in their account, and a TON of trust (on her part) and responsibility (on yours). Most people can qualify with or without reserves, but many times the rate-reducing effect of having reserves can expand your purchase price limit. It is definitely worth doing if someone in your life can make her funds available to you. This is the new age alternative to getting a co-signer, allowing you to get some help without putting the co-signer's credit on the line or making her responsible for making your payment if you can't.

Gift money
If you have "wealthy relations" or really nice parents who have indicated that they plan to give you money to help pay for your down payment or closing costs, get this money in the bank sooner rather than later. Unless your benefactors give you a full 20 percent down payment, most lenders are going to require the gift money to be seasoned (i.e., in your bank accounts) for at least two months prior to the time your mortgage professional submits your loan application to the lender (just to be sure this isn't a super short-term loan). So collect any promised gifts, put them in your bank accounts, and spend your waiting time writing really nice thank you notes.

Student loans
Student loans seem like the warmest-and-fuzziest of all the sorts of debt you can occur. You only incur them if you've been proactive in improving your life, the interest is low and tax deductible, and they'll let you postpone paying them ad infinitum if you just call them up and whisper the magic word "forbearance." With a student loan, your "limit" is simply the loan amount you had when you graduated. During forbearance periods, the interest is tacked onto your account and your balance could grow beyond your "limit." If you've taken advantage of the forbearance process for any significant period of time, and you are less than 10 years out of college or graduate school, your student loan might very well show up on your credit report as being over the limit.

If you see on your credit reports that your student loans are designated both "Pays as Agreed" and the balance is reported as a greater amount than the credit limit, there are three ways you can fix this. All are worth considering because of the sheer size of most student loans, which have a proportionally large impact on your FICO scores:

(1) Pay your student loan down below the "limit" -- this is only feasible if the amount over the limit is within reason;
(2) Call up your student loan company and ask them if they will adjust what they are reporting as your loan "limit" to match what your loan amount currently shows (if they agree, ask for a hard copy letter that documents the "new" loan limit in writing -- you may need it to get your credit reports changed); or
(3) "Consolidate" your old student loan into a new one at the same interest rate or lower, which will reset the loan limit at whatever the loan amount is at the time.

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