Home Buying Tips (part 2)
Get pre-approval for a home loan
We just discussed a few tips for understanding what you can afford. However, it's crucial to sit down with a bank or mortgage lender and receive a firm idea of what loan amount you would qualify for.
Here are a few items most lenders will be looking at
- Your age
- Your occupation and how long you've been at your present job
- The length you've been at your present address
- The number of credit lines you have (student loans, credit cards, etc.)
- The ratio of your credit balances to your available credit amounts
- The number of recent inquiries into your credit
- The period you've had credit in the credit bureau database
- Any negative issues like bankruptcy, foreclosures and late payments
A lender will want authorization to pull your credit report and check your FICO (Fair, Isaac and Co.) score, a credit scoring system. In general, a FICO score of 680 or better is considered excellent.
|
