All this hard pulls/soft pulls/ score dropped by 8 pts is utter BS. m I have found that if one has a good realtioship with their banker at a bank and uses that bank to do a home loan, then you should have no worries.
For example: I am a Premier banking customer with BofA and I all I need for the mortgage on my new house is:
700 and the loan has to be with BofA (which is offering the NO FEE PLUS) and my banker will take care of everything else because he knows me personally and knows that chance of me defaulting are 0%
