Buying a home: Getting started

First thing you should do is fix your credit. It might not be too late for you to start fixing your credit. If you know what to do and how to do it, you could enjoy offers of low interest rates for your mortgage if you have a high credit score. You can obtain your free credit history once a year from each one of the credit bureaus by visiting the only place that is legally authorized to give you a FREE credit report www.annualcreditreport.com. This report will only give you your credit history but if you are looking for you credit score, then you can visit www.equifax.com or www.experian.com or www.transunion.com.

You don’t need to pay anybody any money to fix your credit score, you can do it on your own and it is very easy. Once you have worked on your credit score, the next thing is to get pre-qualified for a loan amount. This step is very crucial because many buyers and homeowners are taken advantage of because they felt uncomfortable asking questions.

Some tips to follow when searching for a loan is to start early, shop around and ASK QUESTIONS. Ask your loan officer or agent to explain to you the pros and cons of each loan program he offers you so you understand it. If he does not want to take the time to do this, don’t trust him/her.

A loan officer or agent that is working with you to obtain a loan for you, should give you a Good Faith Estimate (GFE) with-in 3 days detailing all the costs you will be charged. If you don’t agree or some fees don’t make sense, question them. Loan officers and agents DO NOT work for charity and we deserve to be paid for the work we do but at the same time we have a duty of honesty to our clients. Be aware that there are people that will look at you and only see $$$ dollar signs.

If you decide to look for a better offer, use the GFE to guide you and compare other offers. You have to also understand that every offer will be a little different because interest rates fluctuate daily but you could compare most costs and the type loan program between lenders.

If you are looking for a Real Estate and/or Mortgage broker, try not to respond to solicitations. I am NOT saying all solicitors are predators but ALL predators solicite heavily.

Find someone you trust, with a good track record or a referral from a close friend or family. Once you start looking for a house DO NOT fall in love with the house you want to put in an offer. By not doing this, you can negotiate with your wallet and not your heart. If you negotiate with your heart, your wallet will suffer the consequences of buying too much house, obtaining a bad loan program just to buy the house, etc.

When you do your research ahead of time and you don’t involve your heart in the process, you will always come out on top when buying Real Estate.