What You Need To Get a Mortgage
Getting a mortgage is a straightforward process involving putting together the right documents and presenting those documents to a mortgage broker who is familiar with loans for first time home buyers.
The documents you will need include:
- Pay stubs
- Bank Statements
- Tax Returns
- Credit Scores
- Explanations for any issues on your credit report
Check Your Credit Report
The first place to start is to check your credit report to make sure it is accurate. It is very common to find mistakes on your credit report that will lower your credit rating.
Take the time to review your credit report for accuracy, and if there are mistakes you can correct them by contacting the credit reporting agency.
The quickest way to check your credit report with all three agencies is with creditreport.com:
You can also check with each credit agency individually. They all offer free credit reports along with many other valuable services pertaining to your credit report.
Find Your FICO Score
A FICO score is the only score that lenders care about, and is created by the FICO Company from the information contained in your credit reports.
In today’s lending environment, most borrowers will need to have a FICO score of at least 620 for FHA.
To find your FICO score, go to MyFico.com.
Once you know that you have the minimum score required for a loan, you will then need to find a good Realtor to work with and they can refer you to a mortgage broker.
While this may sound like doing things backwards, a good real estate agent will have mortgage brokers they work with regularly who they can depend on.
Most deals fall through because of financing issues, and there are many mortgage brokers to chose from, so the best way to find a good broker is to get a professional referral.
For more information on how to find a good Realtor, check out our guide 7 Steps to Buying a House for the First Time Home Buyer.
Get Your First Mortgage
Once you have found a mortgage broker, they will meet with you to go over your credit score, and all the paperwork discussed earlier such as pay stubs and tax returns.
Depending on your income, debt load, credit history, savings, and how much you want to put as a down payment, the broker will be able to show you loan programs that you qualify for. They will be able to pre-qualify you for a mortgage at this point.
Once you are pre-qualified, you need to work with your Realtor to write an offer on a house.
Once you actually have a house under contract and in escrow your loan application will be processed and you will find out if you will get the loan.
For your first mortgage, just have patience and understand things take awhile to process. It will take some work on your part to get a mortgage, but
To get a more detailed explanation about how to get approved for a mortgage, be sure to visit 7 Steps to Buying a House for the First Time Home Buyer. There you will find more mortgage information, along with additional information on how to buy a house.
Good luck with your house hunting!