In theory sometimes, in practice rarely. Loans get bundled and sold in the secondary market based on their weighted-average characteristics: rate, FICO, loan-to-value. All five major programs permit manual underwriting. FHA, VA, and USDA use it routinely, while Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac allow it only with much tighter debt-ratio, reserve, and credit restrictions, so on conventional loans the manual path is the exception. Manual files generally reflect weaker qualifying profiles, the secondary market values them lower, and a lender serving those borrowers is absorbing that discount somewhere. Churchill Mortgage, the sponsor and referral partner of Dave Ramsey's show, specializes in 15-year loans and manual underwrites, so they may be more accommodating on those files than an average lender. That is a real niche. The claim strains credibility at "no credit score at genuinely competitive rates." A loan with no score is worth less to secondary-market buyers, so someone pays for that risk, usually the borrower through rate or points. A manual underwrite is a valuable path when an automated approval is out of reach, but expecting it to match the best automated pricing is optimistic. If you are weighing this, get an actual quote on both paths rather than a talking point, and remember that manual underwriting rules change.