Advice for newbie on financing a new build

[Michael Greiner]

Hi folks...so glad I found this forum! I'm purchasing a new build in Simpsonville, SC after an exhausted search of available properties and this will be my primary residence for some time to come. I'm paying "retail" price for this home at $298k but it is a price that I'm comfortable with for the value of the home and offered amenities in a location that is quite nice. Coming from CA, the market is downright cheap here next to what I'm used to seeing. Still, I'd like to manage the best loan possible given my unique circumstances. 

So, I've been working on getting my credit score up over the last few months through Credit Karma which reflected a 775 score and after a recent hard inquiry my Vantage score came back at 706. A bit disappointing...a little background, I purchased an investment property just last year in Daytona Beach, FL so that's a relatively new loan and just bought a $10k car that I financed as well this year. So debt to income is a bit high. Another point is that I've worked hard over the last 10 of 12 years and managed to save up the 20% to put down on this $300k home...resting on my laurels the last 2 years only working sporadically. 10 of the last 12 years raking in about $110k and only about $30k each of the last 2 years. I said all of this to offer a profile for applying for a mortgage loan and the best I've come up with is 5.25% at 1 point with 10% down for a 30 yr conventional loan. My agent advised me that the packages offered with 20% down yielded little in the way of reducing my APR. I wanted to avoid P&I but all other packages were at 5.65% OR offered a much lower rate with additional points added... I'm really at a loss on how to proceed.

I've bought and sold a number of condos using either cash or conventional loans but this is my first build. Any, advice would be greatly appreciated!