Owning a home is a major milestone and a cause for celebration, but before you can get there, you need the funds to make it possible. If you are like most home buyers, you probably don’t have hundreds of thousands of dollars that you can just use to buy your home in one payment. Luckily, you can get a mortgage and secure your dream home now.
Because homes are very expensive, mortgage lenders need to know that you can make payments on time before they trust you with a large amount of money. To increase the probability that lenders will agree to offer you a mortgage, there are several things you can do. Follow these tips to get a mortgage:
- Check Your Credit Report- Before you allow mortgage lenders to take a look at your credit history, make sure you check your credit report well ahead of time. If there are mistakes on your report, such as outdated information or debts you’ve already paid, these can negatively affect your credit. Luckily, if you check far enough in advance, you can dispute and correct errors before it affects your chances with mortgage lenders.
- Don’t Apply for Other Credit Right Before- Applying for credit even just a few months before getting a mortgage could hurt your chances since it will lower your credit score. It’s not guaranteed that lenders will turn you away if you’ve recently applied for other credit, but it could mean you’ll have to pay a higher interest rate at the least.
- Improve Your Credit Score- A high credit score is very important when you want to get a mortgage. Some ways to improve your score are to make your debt payments on time consistently and keep your credit balances low.