Friday, February 8, 2008

A Practical Guide For First Time Home Buyers

If you are planning to buy your first house, there are some essential factors you need to consider. Since you dont have any experience in buying a house, it important to be geared up with the right information to prepare yourself for the home buying process.

Now, you might think that buying a home is a difficult task. Thats not necessarily the case. By taking the steps to prepare and learn about your options you can keep the process as hassle free as possible. In fact, as a first-time buyer, you may have some advantages. Here is a step by step guide for a first time home buyer:

The first step should be to reduce your credit card bills to clean up your credit standing. This will allow you to save more money for a home deposit. It will also indicate to the lender that you have a responsible track record with previous credit allocations.

You should then calculate how much you can afford to spend on your home. That is, how much money you can borrow and how much down payment you can make. Do not forget to keep aside some money for last-minute expenses and emergency repairs. You can use online calculators to assist with this process.

After you determine the amount of money you can afford then you should start looking for a loan to suit your requirements. If you have a steady job and a good credit history, you can easily get a loan without paying a down payment. Still, if you can make a down payment, you can consider more financing options.

In case you don't have a good credit history, you should initiate proceedings with a service that can help you clean up your credit rating. Doing so will improve the chances you will qualify for a loan

If you have difficulty coming up with the funds for a down payment, you can consider down-payment assistance programs. To qualify for these programs you need to determine what the criteria is for access. You can apply for this through your state housing finance authority or the relevant housing authority website.

Now that you have read these tips, you need to get busy to refine your options and put a plan in place to get the home of your dreams.

Andrew Winthorp is a freelance writer for http://www.first-timehome-buyer.com First Time Home Buyer Learn more practical advice for buying your first home.

Mortgage Advice First Time Buyers

For a lot of newly weds buying their first home together is something that they dream about and when they view each house they imagine how well their new furniture will look and what beautiful colours they will paint each wall and even which of the bedrooms will be ideal for their forthcoming children.

But far from these wonderful ideas the one concern that they ought to have on both of their minds is the mortgage. A First time Mortgage for a home can be expensive if one does not know what to look for.

The majority of banks and financial institutions often offer first time mortgages to people wishing to buy a home but first time mortgages are somewhat different to conventional mortgages in so much as the first time applicants do not possess a credible account of a previous mortgage repayment history.

Many first time buyers do their financial business with only one financial institutions out there including having a current or savings account with them. Therefore they will want to think about them first when they are looking for a first time mortgage. Their current bank for example will more than likely already have a perception of their previous and current financial status as countless people do apply for credit cards from their principal bank and this can certainly help them when the time comes to fill in each of the documents necessary for a mortgage.

The lenders will desire to know how secure the borrowers employment is and they might request a letter of confirmation of their employment and income from their employer. It is advisable that they let their employer know that they are applying for a mortgage so that they will keep and eye out for any such letters from the lender. If they are self employed then their bank may request a copy of their most recent tax return. They will want to view this simply because it will provide them with a better understanding of their gross annual income, so they should be ready to supply such tax returns for the past 3 years of so.

When applying for a first time mortgage they should know that the home they purchase will be the main portion of collateral that they will own. But they should be aware the bank or mortgage company will have the power to repossess their home should they ever fail to meet the repayments and other terms set out in the mortgage agreement.

In a number of cases where a house buyer is seeking a first time mortgage the bank may well ask for someone to co-sign the loan agreement. Quite frequently a parent will be the co-signer. But they should be advised that this does mean that if they fail to make the repayments then the co-signer will become liable.

While the vision of getting their self into so much financial debt can make them cautious about applying for a first time mortgage, the venture is well worth it, as owning their very own home is a step in the right direction to a secure financial future.

Zhang Xiao Hong Remortgage Quotes and UK Finance Infopedia

http://remortgagequotesuk.co.uk +

http://financeinfopedia.com