What the score is actually doing
Credit does not work as a pass mark you clear or fail. It is one input among several (income, the down payment, the property, reserves), and a softer position on one can be offset by strength elsewhere. Different loan types also weigh it differently, which is why a file that does not work one way can work another.
What a lender is really reading is the pattern: what happened, how long ago, and whether it has recurred. A single bad stretch three years behind you reads very differently from an ongoing one.
The cost of assuming
The expensive version of this belief is silence. People decide they are not ready, stop asking, and spend two or three more years renting, often while the thing they were worried about was already old enough to matter much less than they thought.
A soft conversation costs nothing and does not touch your credit. Finding out you were eligible eighteen months ago is a worse outcome than finding out you are not eligible yet.
If it genuinely is not there yet
Then the answer is a plan with a date on it rather than a vague "work on your credit". Usually that means which specific items to address, in what order, and what the file would look like afterwards, so you are working toward something defined instead of waiting for a feeling.
That plan is also worth having before you pay anyone to repair anything, because some of what gets sold as credit repair is work you can do yourself.
What to send
Roughly where you think you stand, what happened and when, your income, and what you are trying to buy. That is enough for a straight read on whether this is a now conversation or a six-month one.
These are consumer mortgages and I originate them in select states. Eligibility and terms vary by scenario and by lender guidelines; nothing here is a commitment to lend.