Tuesday, January 6, 2009

How to Up Your Odds of Getting a Mortgage

By Troy Cruz William Engle Dawn Khoury James Nissen Robert Hill Chris Laning Janet Taylor Jack Enders Bruce Gross Rick Bean Keith Wood Ray Johnson Alex Velez Juan Hines Paul Holtz Kenya Rios Peggy Dye Neal Dawes Lucas King David Hebert Karl Howell Jarrod Lucky Ruth Coats Doris Lund Ryan Hudson Henry Bush Lonnie May Arlen Bell Wanda Kuebler Kevin Stiles Nick Horton Jorge Pina Frank Vera Chad Copp Jose Cruz Jeremy Stanley Mark Jones Kelly McMahon Barney Bernard Ailleann Alan

Perhaps you have found the house of your dreams and are now talking to banks about getting a mortgage. If your credit is on the fence, you might be wondering whether or not you are going to even get approved for a mortgage. Without a mortgage there is probably no way that you can get a house, so you are trying to increase your chances of approval. What exactly are you supposed to do?

Do Your Homework. The first step is to do your homework and figure out what your history is. When you are doing your homework, make sure you get your credit score. This is going to tell you how good or how bad your credit is, and this is the number that banks use to determine what type of risk you are. If you are high risk, you are going to have a harder time finding a bank or a mortgage company that is going to lend to you. If your credit score is good, you are going to find it really easy to get a mortgage and you are going to have a lot of bargaining power.

Know where your money is going to. When you go in to talk to banks, take a copy of the budget that you drew up that shows exactly how much you are currently spending on renting a house and how much you would pay with your mortgage payment. When banks find out that you are able to afford the mortgage payments they are going to be more likely to approve the application.

Have a Down Payment. A lot of first time buyers don't have the twenty percent required for a down payment on their mortgage. This is going to be a problem if you have bad credit because a lot of banks aren't going to want to take the risk. By saving up and having enough of a down payment, you are going to increase your chances of approval.

Find a cosigner. When your credit is not so great, a lot of banks are going to ask for a cosigner, which is someone who is going to put their house and mortgage on the line in case you don't pay. If you have someone who will do this for you, this is going to drastically increase your chances of getting that mortgage. A lot of people are going to be reluctant to cosign for you if you are fiscally irresponsible.

Learn about the real estate market. You may not know this, but you are going to get a better mortgage when the real estate market is sizzling hot. A lot of banks are going to hesitate when loaning money in a cooling market because property values could decrease significantly.

Find out about your neighborhood. Some bank officials are going to ask you about how much houses in the neighborhood sold for in the past. When they find out that you know how much your future neighbor's house sold for three years ago, they are going to be impressed and give you the loan

With the economy not being so hot, it is getting more and more difficult to get a mortgage. Following these six tips is going to drastically improve your shot at a mortgage. - 16928

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