Lower credit rebuild for better rates?

[Justin Bartram]

My wife and I have been in real estate in the past, I was once a full time entrepreneur, keyword was. I've since been back to work a couple of years now and were 90ish% debt free now, nearly down to our mortgage and a HELOC. I've built out a plan with a family member who is in lending who is going to be able to help us refinance our home, lower our monthly payment from what we currently have and reopen a new HELOC to tap into more equity we've built with improvements (bought our house for a steal years ago).

Now my issue is with the credit. I have seen some HML's in my area that can come down to 660 credit but depending on where I look I am a few points under or right at the limit. I want to ensure that we will be able to get the ball rolling once our house refi is done. My credit used to be in the mid 700s but leaving my job dragged me into the 400s unfortunately.

Any advice on next steps here?

For better context as well, I have a small remainder of a student loan that should be done next month and then we will only owe the mortgage and HELOC.