This is a simple strategy.

If you're getting a conventional loan and you're paying less than 20% you'll likely be paying mortgage insurance.

(if you're going with an FHA loan, none of this will apply)

Mortgage insurance payment can change on a few factors:

Your credit score

Your debt-to-income ratio

Your down payment (the loan-to-value ratio LTV)

debt to income

If you're going to pull on a lever to lower your mortgage insurance payment, this might be the easiest one.

Let's say you have a credit card, but you pay it off every month.

A lot of people do that.

But the credit bureau doesn't report it like that.

You might have had your credit card balance at $2,000 at the time the credit card company reported it to the bureaus (experian, transunion, equifax)

If the lender says your debt to income ratio is at 46% because of that credit card, then your credit card balance could be the reason you're paying a higher mortgage insurance premium.

Do a review of your debts, see which ones you normally pay off, and tell the lender that you'll pay it off at closing.

This way they remove the debt from your overall debt-to-income ratio.

In this hypothetical scenario, dropping from 46% to 44% will drastically improve your mortgage insurance payment.

(also, don't judge people for buying a home at 46% debt to income ratio, you don't know if they have a second job that underwriting won't count, or if their spouse has a job but the spouse's credit score is too low. This is just debt-to-income according to a lender's rules, not their household budget)

Your credit score

Let's keep this rolling.

Say that credit card that you pay off every month is maxed out. ($2,000 limit with a $2,000 balance)

That's probably hurting your credit score, even if you pay it off every month.

Check if your lender will offer what's called a "rapid rescore"

With a rapid rescore, you pay off the balance, you get a letter from the creditor stating the new balance, and you get a new credit score.

This is a double dipper. You get a better credit score, and your DTI goes down with the debt elimination.

Going from a 735 credit score to a 740 credit score should improve your mortgage insurance payment.

and who knows, you might even get a better interest rate.

So here's what you do:

Ask what debts are reporting. Ask if you paid off any of those debts, if your mortgage insurance premium would go down.

Ask what your credit score is. Ask if you increased your score to _ if your mortgage insurance premium would go down.

There you go!