The ABCs of Getting a Mortgage Loan for First-Timers

Posted on: 26 July 2017

You have made the decision to buy a home and now you are ready to get started with the whole process. There are a few things that you want to do in order to make everything go smoothly. Here are some of the main steps that you want to take after you have come to the conclusion that you want to buy soon: 

Stay on top of your credit in every way

• Join a credit monitoring service so you can keep a close eye on your credit score. This will help you to catch identity theft right away and it will make it easier for you to raise your credit score by seeing the changes occur as they happen and by seeing the affects different changes have on the score.
• Pay down as many of your accounts as you can to get them as low as you can get them. Not only will this help raise your credit, but it also helps lower your debt to income ratio so you can afford a more expensive home.
• Don't apply for new lines of credit. When you decide you are going to start the home buying process you don't want an increase of inquiries which can negatively affect your score as well.

Get all of your paperwork in order

You want to make sure you have everything gathered that the lender will need to see. Some of these things will include recent bank statements, your tax returns for the last two years, references, your employment information for the past two years and any other information that your lender will need to see in order to know exactly where you stand financially. For example, if you have student loan debt, then this is another thing you will need to present the lender with.

Know your own budget

You will want to do your own calculations so you know what amount you can really afford when buying. Even though your lender may approve you for a certain amount when it comes to the homes you would qualify for, this doesn't mean you need to go that high. If you know that you like to spend a certain percentage of your income on other things and you want to continue to be able to do so, then you'll want to figure this in and decide on how high you can really go so you don't have a hard time keeping up with the mortgage payments each month.