For most people, buying a house involves a double financial whammy.
First you have to assemble a pile of cash for the down payment and closing costs. Then you must convince a bank to lend you an even more staggering sum -- generally 80 percent or more of the purchase price. So your first step, even before you start the actual hunt for a property, should be to get your financial house in order.
Start with your credit
Credit reports are kept by the three major credit agencies, Experian, Equifax and TransUnion. Among other things, they show whether you are habitually late with payments and whether you have run into serious credit problems in the past, such as a bankruptcy within the last seven years.
Fair Isaac, a firm that develops credit scoring systems, calculates a credit score based on the information in your report. You have three different credit scores, one for each of your credit reports.
A low credit score may hurt your chances for getting the best interest rate, or getting financing at all. So get a copy of your reports and know your credit scores. Try Fair Isaac's MyFICO.com, which charges about $39 for all three reports and scores, as well as an explanation of your score and tips for improving it.
Errors are not uncommon. If you find any, you must contact the agencies directly to correct them, which DVD COPY can take two or three months to resolve. If the report is accurate but shows past problems, be prepared to explain them to a loan officer.
Know what you can afford
Next, you need to determine how much house you can afford. You can start with one of the Web's many calculators, like the ones on CNNMoney.com and Quicken.com. For a more accurate figure, ask to be pre-approved by a lender, who will look at your income, debt and credit to determine the kind of loan that's in your league.
The rule of thumb here is to aim for a home that costs about two-and-a-half times your gross annual salary. Use this only as a general guide, though. Many factors can change that equation. If you have significant credit card debt or other financial obligations like alimony or even an expensive hobby, then you may need to set your sights lower.
The size of your downpayment will also determine how much you can afford.
Coming up with the money
If you haven't already, you'll need to come up with cash for your down payment and closing costs. Lenders like to see 20 percent of the home's price as a down payment. If you can put down more than that, the lender may be willing to approve a larger loan. If you have less, you'll need to find loans that can accommodate you.
Various private and public agencies -- including Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, the Federal Housing Administration and the Department of Veteran Affairs -- provide low down payment mortgages through banks and mortgage companies. If you qualify, it's possible to pay as little as 3 percent up front for a loan. For more, check out their Web sites at Fanniemae.com or Freddiemac.com.
A warning: With a down payment under 20 percent, you will probably wind up having to pay for private mortgage insurance, a safety net protecting the bank in case you fail to make payments. PMI adds about 0.5 percent of the total loan amount to your mortgage payments for the year. So if you finance $100,000, your PMI will cost $500 annually.
Copyright © 2004-2005 AEPsoft Inc. - All Rights
Reserved. Site Designed & Optimized for 1024x768x16bpp and IE
4.0 + |