Getting your feet wet in the real estate market for the first time can be a nerve-wracking and challenging experience. You want to buy a home, but don’t necessarily know how to go about doing it. One key part of the process is securing a mortgage on decent terms. Here’s what you need to know about getting that done.
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At first glance, the attraction of a no-money down mortgage seems obvious. You get to buy a home without having to save up as much as twenty percent of the cost. More money in your pocket means, well, more money in your pocket. When is that ever a bad thing, right? Well, unfortunately, there is more to a no-money down home loan than may at first meet the eye.
In this post, we’ll take a quick look at the pros and cons of zero-down mortgages, then take a stab at helping you figure out if a no-money down loan is right for you and your home buying situation. After all, what you may gain in the immediate future can always come back to haunt you. Like your grandparents may have said, there’s no such thing as a free lunch.
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Your credit scores, credit history, and your income, it may come as no surprise, have a great deal to do with how much of a home loan you can qualify for and at what terms. A great credit score can make all the difference when it comes to how much you pay for a loan over the course of its term. This may not seem like a big deal at first, but on a thirty-year mortgage, the difference can be staggering.
Your debt-to-income ratio, any late payments, repossessed items, bankruptcies, and several other factors all go into determining your credit score. But credit reporting bureaus are far from infallible, and with all the data breaches and identity theft happening these days, not all items that count against you on your credit report may be your fault. So, before you set up an appointment to apply for a mortgage, here’s what you need to know and do about your credit.
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Buying a home is a major decision, and one that involves many smaller yet still important decisions along the way. Having the right professionals to help guide you through the process can make all the difference between getting the right loan on the right terms, and getting a loan that you’ll want to refinance your way out of as soon as possible.
But if you’re new to the home-buying process or have been out of the loop for a while, finding the best mortgage broker for you may seem like a secondary or even unnecessary concern. It can be very tempting to focus on the more exciting aspects of buying your new home, or to think of all mortgage brokers as essentially being the same.
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One of the hardest parts of the home buying process, especially for first time homebuyers, is getting comfortable with all of the parts of the process. Even those who have already purchased one or more homes in their lifetime still need to learn the lay of the ever-shifting landscape when it comes time to buy another home.
Learning how to get the information you need out of the professionals you are trusting to help you through the process is a great way to make sure you’re not missing anything. In this post, we’ll take a look at the five most important questions you should be asking your mortgage professional.
more “5 Questions You Should Definitely Be Asking Your Mortgage Brokers”
