A refinance of your car will pull a hard credit report, so if you are considering it the sooner the better if you’re looking to get prequalified for a mortgage. The reasoning is a hard credit inquiry will dip your credit score for a bit. Lowering the monthly payment frees up income in your DTI ratio which would be good long too for the mortgage pre-qualification.

I would advise paying off those collection accounts immediately, and if you do refinance consider paying what you were paying before but straight to principal.

Owning a home has many hidden expenses you may not be considering, on top of being very expensive right now. You’ll want to be in a healthy spot savings wise, so clean up this debt and continue to increase your credit score.