Get your house in order before you start shopping for a home. Here’s what you need to do, and when.
Buying a home is a complicated process, and it can be particularly daunting for the first-timer.
The following timeline starts one year before you hope to start seriously shopping for a home. This is an ideal; you can arrange your finances and buy a home in significantly less time (30 to 60 days if necessary), but you’d be smart to walk through the steps in order.
A year out (or as soon as possible)
Get your credit reports. Errors on your reports can force you to pay a higher interest rate on your mortgage or even torpedo your chances of getting a loan. You can get free copies of your reports from the three major credit bureaus — Equifax, Experian and TransUnion — at AnnualCreditReport.com. Look for accounts that aren’t yours, collection accounts for debts you don’t owe and negative marks (other than bankruptcy) that are older than seven years.
You should be able to dispute credit errors with the bureaus and get them removed, but if the bureaus or the creditors balk, you may need to hire an attorney. (The National Association of Consumer Advocates can refer you to lawyers with knowledge of the credit-reporting and debt-collecting laws.) Don’t leave yourself in the position of having to pay a bogus collection account to get the loan you want or paying unnecessary interest because of credit-report errors.
Get — and improve — your FICO credit scores. Your credit scores, which are three-digit numbers used to gauge your creditworthiness, help determine the rates and terms you can get for a loan. There are hundreds of different credit-scoring formulas, but the one used by the vast majority of mortgage lenders is the FICO.
The only place you can buy your FICO scores for all three credit bureaus is MyFico.com. A package of three scores and three credit reports costs about $50. You can learn more about credit scores, how they work and how to improve in my Blogs Understanding Your Credit Scores and Correcting Errors and Removing Negatives From Your Credit Reports. But three quick keys to better credit: Pay all your bills on time, pay down your credit cards and other revolving debt, and don’t open (or close) any accounts while you’re in the market for a mortgage.
Deal with your debt. Most people needn’t pay off their student loans, auto loans or other generally low-rate debt before getting a mortgage. What you want to eradicate is “toxic” debt: credit card balances and payday loans. These are signs you’re living beyond your means. If you don’t get your overspending problem fixed before you buy a home, your problems will likely just get worse because homeownership typically involves plenty of big costs (property taxes, insurance, maintenance, repairs, improvements, decorating). Get your act together before you house shop.
Save, save, save. Stop eating out. Drop the your cable-TV subscription. Do everything you can think of to put as much money aside as possible, using your desire to be a homeowner as a motivator. (Read “Could you stop spending for a month?” for inspiration.) In today’s market, it’s best to have at least a 5% down payment; boost that to 10% and you’ll have even more financing options. Ideally, you’ll also have enough left over after you get your mortgage to cover the payments for two or three months.
Put your bills on automatic. A single 30-day late payment can knock 100 points off your score, and it can take many, many months to recover. Make sure every bill gets paid on time. If you don’t have a reliable bill-paying system, consider using automatic debits, so payments come directly from your checking account, or an online bill-payment system’s recurring-payment feature.
6 months out
Sort through your mortgage options. A lot of people lost their homes during the Great Recession and the Subprime Mortgage Crisis of 2007 because they didn’t understand what kind of mortgage they had or they accepted bad advice. The low teaser payments that allowed them to buy a more expensive house have jumped skyward, leaving them unable to pay. It’s up to you to understand the risks of the different types of mortgages and to select the right one for your family. My 2 cents: Stick with traditional, fixed-rate mortgages. If you can’t commit to a 30-year version, at least use a hybrid loan with a rate that’s fixed for as long as you plan to own the home.
Start calculating how much house you can afford. Once you’ve settled on a type of mortgage and have a rough idea of your down payment, you can start using online calculators like this one at LendingTree.com to see how much house you can buy. Consider buying less home than the absolute maximum you can afford; if you keep your housing expenses (mortgage, taxes and insurance) to 25-30% of your gross income, you’ll be able to live more comfortably and have money left over for things like retirement savings, vacations and the kids’ college educations.
Research all the costs of owning a home. Your mortgage will be just the start. You’ll have to pay property taxes and insurance on the home. There may be homeowners- or condo-association fees as well. You may face higher utility bills, and you’ll take on maintenance and repair costs as well. Decorating your new house can cost a pile of money as well — have you shopped for window coverings lately? Your home-owning friends and a friendly real estate agent or two can help fill you in so you know what to expect. Remember property taxes, mortgage interest and private mortgage insurance payments are all tax deductible on one’s primary residence.
Adjust your savings strategies. What you’ve learned so far may inspire you to boost your savings. A bigger down payment, for example, can result in a larger home or a lower mortgage payment. Or you may simply want to build up your emergency fund so unexpected home expenses don’t knock your finances off the rails.
3 months out
Reduce your credit utilization. The FICO scoring formula is sensitive to how much of your available limits you’re using on your credit cards and other revolving lines of credit. The less, the better. It doesn’t matter if you pay your balances in full every month as the figure the scoring formula typically uses is the balance that shows on your most recent statement. Try to keep that balance below 30%, or even lower. If you can’t — because you charge a lot for work-related travel, for example — make a payment before the statement’s closing date to reduce the balance reported to the bureaus. Just be sure to make a second payment after the closing date, so you don’t get reported as late.
Don’t open or close any accounts. Until the mortgage process is completed and you’ve moved into your new home, continue to avoid actions that could potentially harm your credit, such as opening credit accounts or closing old ones.
2 months out
Find a Realtor and begin your home search. Your Realtor is your best friend and your guide through the home buying process, he or she will help you understand everything you need to know and assist you in selecting the home that’s right for you! Your Realtor will also assist you in referring you to other trusted service providers such as mortgage brokers, inspectors, insurance agents, appraisers, contractors, etc. They will also help you shop for a loan and guide you through the mortgage process, this starts with indentifing the type of loan that will best serve your needs and ends in selecting the best loan offer.
Get an idea of the mortgage rate you can expect. Order a fresh set of FICO credit scores — don’t worry, checking your scores doesn’t ding them — and talk to some mortgage lenders about what rates you might qualify for. (You’ll find current national averages here.) Don’t apply yet or give permission for your credit to be pulled; you just want to get a feel for what you can expect.
Understand the effect of mortgage-shopping on your score. You want to get the best rate and terms possible, which means you’ll need to shop around, but how does that affect your credit score? Here’s the lowdown: Every time you give a lender permission to check your credit, a “hard inquiry” appears on your credit report, and that can ding your score a bit. Fortunately, the FICO scoring formula lumps all mortgage-related inquiries made within a specified period and counts them as one. (The period used to be 14 days, but the most recent versions stretch that to 45 days.) Furthermore, the scoring formula ignores any inquiries made in the previous 30 days. So you want to do your serious mortgage shopping in a fairly concentrated period of time, typically after your offer on the home you want is accepted.
Get approved for a mortgage ahead of time. Pre-approval, in which a lender gives a commitment to make you a loan, is different and more valuable to sellers than pre-qualification, which merely gives you an idea of the size of the mortgage you might afford without making any commitments. You don’t have to get a loan from the lender that offers you a pre-approval letter. Getting a pre-approval does involve giving permission for a hard credit inquiry, but the small potential ding on your credit is worth it because you’ll be in a stronger position with sellers.
Once you’ve found your home and your offer is accepted
Consider a mortgage broker and shop for a mortgage. Once a home is selected and your offer is accepted you’ll need to make arrangements for your financing. By now your Realtor should have referred you to a few brokers and assisted you in selecting the one that’s right for you. Thus your task should be selecting the loan product that will best serve your needs. There are numerous options available, and sorting through the possibilities can be overwhelming. Your mortgage broker and your Realtor will help you with these selections. You’ll need to move fairly quickly to secure the loan, because the full approval process typically takes four to six weeks.
Arrange for a home inspection, an appraisal, and a walk-through. The appraisal is required for your loan to be approved. An inspection isn’t necessarily required, but don’t skip this essential step, which can alert you to serious problems before the deal closes. The walk-through is usually done within 24 hours of the deal closing, so you can make sure that the home sellers have performed any agreed-upon repairs and the place is in move-in condition.
Get homeowners’ insurance. Mortgage lenders require this coverage, and you’ll need to prove you have it at closing.
Confirm how much money you’ll need at closing. “Closing” is when you sign all the paperwork and pay agreed-upon amounts, which can include your down payment and your share of legal fees, paperwork costs, property taxes and title insurance.
Enjoy your new home!
If you, or someone you know is considering Buying or Selling a Home in Columbus, or any of our other Central Ohio communities please give us a call and we’d be happy to assist!
The Opland Group Specializes in Real Estate Sales, Luxury Home Sales, Short Sales in; Bexley 43209 Columbus 43201 43206 43214 43215 Delaware 43015 Downtown Dublin 43016 43017 Gahanna 43219 43230 Grandview Heights 43212 Galena 43021 Hilliard 43026 Lewis Center 43035 New Albany 43054 Pickerington 43147 Polaris Powell 43065 Upper Arlington 43220 43221 Westerville 43081 43082 Worthington 43235
