What to Consider Before Buying a House?

Sam Wilson
5 min readOct 9, 2021

Whether you are in the buyer or seller’s market, you will want to buy a home as soon as you find the right one. But it is not always easy. There are a number of financial issues that will determine whether you will be able to afford a home, as well as the terms of your mortgaged property.

Sufficient Down Payment

Make sure you have enough savings to put down your new home. Your dream of becoming a homeowner could be shattered if you could not afford to pay for your mortgage. You may know people who bought homes in the past without paying or you may have been one of those people. That is the situation with very little chance today, as banks try to reduce the risk of unsuccessful borrowers. For example, when real estate prices fall, a borrower who puts his or her living money in the area may continue to storm out, waiting for property prices to rise again. “The borrower with the skin in the game is less likely to laugh if it goes too far,” he said.

An Affordable Interest rate

There is a very good chance that you will pay tens of thousands of dollars in interest alone on the life of your loan. That is why it is so important to get a low interest rate loan. This could save you thousands of dollars in the long run.

Make sure you shop around. Do not sign with the lender for the first time. Start by checking with your financial institution. You may be able to find a competitive rating because you are already doing business with them. And do not exclude credit unions, small public banks, and online lenders. When you look at most lenders, you are more likely to get a really good rate.

A good tool for researching and comparing interest rates is a collateral calculator. This tool gives you an idea of your potential costs before meeting with a retailer.

Check Smart Financial Tools Here: Recipe financial planner

Minimum Acceptable Amount of Debt

Your FICO score shows your ability to pay your bills. Issuing your credit cards and paying off your debts late can be another financial stumbling block for potential homeowners who need a mortgage. If you have a bad credit rating or, worse, have no credit history at all, there is no way you can qualify for a loan.

FICO schools provide banking insight into your ability to pay your monthly bills and how much total debt can affect mortgage payments. But what is considered an acceptable FICO school? It can be difficult to check because it varies depending on which lender you ask.

Amy Tierce, chief loan officer with Radius Financial Group, notes that although the Federal Housing Administration (FHA) offers options to support lenders with as low as $ 500 credit, many lenders have their own needs. It will therefore be a challenge to find a lender who will work with a borrower with a credit score of less than 640.

However, the credit cards released are not your only concern. “If you are 30, 60, or 90 days late for some of your debts, your credit score will be lower, and banks will not want to lend money to someone who has to ask for their money regularly,” Alcorn said.

Your Debt-to-Income ratio

Homeowners who overindulge may end up eating ramen noodles daily in the house that they may eventually lose. That’s why it’s important to be realistic about what you can afford. You can get this by adding all your monthly payments and dividing that amount by your total salary each month.

You can calculate your credit-to-money ratio by dividing your total monthly payments by your monthly income.

“Banks use a credit-to-income ratio (DTI) to determine if a borrower can afford a home,” Alcorn said. “For example, suppose a borrower earns $ 5,000 a month. The bank does not demand your credit card debt, including new payment for goods, and car payments, credit card payments, and other monthly obligations, to exceed a certain percentage of that income.”

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has rules that say that the credit-to-cash ratio cannot exceed 43% .1

But Alcorn warns that just because a bank feels you can afford to pay a mortgage does not mean you can. “For example, the bank does not know if you have a large family, or the cost of child care, or the elderly parents you care for. It’s important to have a straightforward conversation about your monthly payments with your security team so you don’t have to worry about it, “said Alcorn.

Ability to Pay Closing Costs

There are a lot of mortgage payments, and you can have a deceptive financial recovery if you don’t know what to expect in advance.

Although the cost of closure varies from lender to lender and to state, “borrowers pay for the inspection, credit report, attorney / closing fees, recording fees, and processing / writing costs,” says Alcorn, adding that the closing costs are usually 1% of the total. loan.

However, interest rates can be calculated up to 3%, and lenders must provide borrowers with the right amount of credit for the type of loan you can get.

Required Financial Documents

Ensuring that you have all your ducks in a row before you apply for your loan will help the process run smoothly. Insufficient documentation can delay or completely eliminate the process of approving a loan, so you need to figure out what to bring to the table.

“Your lender should have a complete and complete list of documents needed to support your loan application depending on your employment status and income,” Tierce said. “If you start with pre-authorization, make sure the lender requests all the documents for this process because prior approval without a full review of the documents is useless. There are some shortcomings that could cause your loan to be rejected over time if the pre-approval process is not properly documented. “

Originally published at https://www.klusster.com on October 9, 2021.

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