Find the right people to help
More than likely you are going to need a real estate agent and loan officer to assist you in the home buying process. Like most things in life you need to surround yourself with the right people in order to succeed.
Start by asking your family, friends and co-workers who helped with the purchase and financing of their home. You will discover people often have strong opinions about the realtor and loan officer who assisted with the purchase of their home. I recommend contacting a least 2 loan officers and 2 realtors who come highly recommended and tell them about your plans to buy a home.
Get Approved for a Mortgage
One of the first questions you may be asked by a real estate professional is “Have you been pre qualified?” With many recent loan guideline changes this applies if you are buying your 1st, 2nd or 10th property. I recommend taking it a step further and become pre approved. You do not want to go through the process of finding a home to discover you don’t qualify or the financing terms (interest rate and/or down payment) are not what you expected.
Much of the leg work in finding a loan officer can be conducted via phone and email, but once you have narrowed your options a face to face meeting is recommended. If you are working with trusted sources do not be overly concerned about providing personal information over the phone. The more information you provide the less chance for problems. Do not hide information. A good loan officer should ask the right question to uncover any potential problems, but if you are aware of an issue be upfront. Also, you should not be concerned about allowing a few lenders to pull your credit while shopping for a mortgage. Credit repositories count multiple inquires for mortgages as 1 inquiry if within 15 days of the initial inquiry for the purpose of a mortgage. Most importantly ask a lot of questions to insure you have a clear understanding of your mortgage and approval terms.
Check back more to come. How to compare Good Faith Estimates? What you need to know about credit scoring? Homebuyer down payment assistance programs. Until then if you have any questions email Lee@nwamortgagepro.com.
Shoot, who would have thoghut that it was that easy?