Mortgage application is a simple process.
You’ll pick a lender, fill out an application, and submit supporting papers like tax returns and bank records to prove your financial situation.
It’s basically a waiting game. Underwriters examine your credit and supporting evidence before deciding whether or not to accept you. If everything checks out, you’ll schedule a closing date for the loan.
The most crucial thing is to submit an application to multiple lenders. It is advisable to apply with at least 3-5 mortgage companies.
Submitting a successful mortgage application
To increase your loan possibilities and lower your interest rate, you want to offer your mortgage lender with the strongest application possible.
Run a credit check.
You’re waiting too long if you wait until you apply for a mortgage to check your credit.
This is because mortgage interest rates — as well as mortgage qualification — are determined by your credit score. The stakes are also quite high.
If you check your credit when you apply and it’s lower than you expected, you’ll almost certainly end up with a higher interest rate and a more expensive monthly payment than you expected.
Remember that a higher credit score typically translates to a lower mortgage rate. So, even if you check your score and it’s good, you might want to focus on improving it before making a purchase.
Check your credit score as soon as possible.
You should start reviewing your credit ratings as soon as possible because it can take up to one more year or much more to fix and to evaluate major CC rating problems, so we advised to get started and move it up ASAP.
Each year, you are legally entitled to a free copy of your credit report from annualcreditreport.com. These reports are crucial since they serve as the foundation for calculating your credit score.
Yet, according to one research, one out of every five credit reports contains inaccuracies substantial enough to harm a consumer’s creditworthiness.
As a result, you must examine yours to ensure that they are completely accurate. When it comes to disputing inaccuracies, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau can help.
If at all feasible, improve your CC ratings before passing your application by these steps:
- Proceed and Continue to pay bills on or before the time given
- Decrease your CC balances – If they’re above than 30% of your credit limit, you’re destroying your credit score ratings. The smaller it gets, the better.
- Don’t open or close CC accounts just until they’ve been cleared and closed.
Those suggestions should help you improve your score over time.
Apply to multiple lenders.
Accepting the first mortgage quote you receive is a massive error.
Many first-time home purchasers are unaware that mortgage rates are not fixed. Lenders have a lot of flexibility when it comes to interest rates and fees.
That means a lender you’re considering could be able to offer you a better rate than the one it’s now displaying.
You’ll need to shop around and acquire a couple other quotations to attain those reduced rates. You can use a reduced rate quote from one lender as a bargaining point to secure lower rates from other lenders.
It’s also a good idea to compare shops for mortgage rates to check whether you’re getting a good deal.
To make sure that you’re getting the best of the best price, compare and assess tailored rate estimates from at least 3 lenders/borrowers (more is good). A mortgage broker can help you in the comparison of various quotes at once.
And also, it is advisable to make sure you’re comparing like-for-like quotes. If you’re not careful in this situation, things like discount points can make one deal appear deceptively more tempting than another.
Make certain that all of your mortgage quotes have the same loan type and parameters so that you can compare rates on a level playing field.
Be pre-approved.
Many first-time home buyers make the error of waiting too long to apply for a mortgage and not getting pre-approved before looking for a home.
Unless you get pre-approved by a mortgage lender, you won’t know how much house you can afford. They are going to look all your income related matter for them to determine if you are eligible to get a house or not.
You think that you can’t afford it, but you actually can.
Existing debts can drastically diminish your home-buying power. And until a lender notifies you, you won’t know how things like credit will affect your budget.
Pre-Approval Letter
You may find yourself haggling for your ideal property just to be ignored. Assume you’re a home seller who receives an unsupported offer from an unknown party. For all you know, the prospective buyer has little possibility of obtaining the necessary financing.
If the seller receives another offer from someone who has a pre-approval letter, they are more likely to consider it. They might even accept a lower offer from a buyer they know would go through with the transaction.
Pay on time.
Your rental history is the best indicator of whether you’ll be able to keep up with your mortgage payments. You may be unable to acquire a home if you have made late or skipped rent payments.
Rent arrears are a bigger problem than you might believe, as they can make it harder to get a mortgage. Rent is essential for persons with poor credit.
Before applying, they’ll go over their rental history from the previous few years.
You may be written off as a dangerous investment if you have been late on payments or have missed them entirely. Rent will be the most essential indicator of your creditworthiness if you haven’t been responsible for things like credit cards, loans, or auto payments.
No new loans.
You may have heard that financing a costly item while applying for a mortgage is a bad idea.
However, most people are unaware that purchasing something with large payments, even years before asking for a new loan, is a mistake.
The more money you owe each month on things like auto payments and loans, the less money you have left over to pay your mortgage. This can severely limit the amount of mortgage you’re eligible for.
Also, try to avoid making any additional large-ticket purchases that could jeopardize your ability to buy a home.
Maintain minimal credit card balances
A minor rise in your mortgage rate can be enough to make a difference. In extreme situations, your approval may be canceled entirely, putting your ambition of becoming a homeowner on wait.
If you’ve already taken out a huge debt, there’s not much you can do anymore. Short-term credit purchases, on the other hand, should be avoided. Avoid financing or refinancing anything before closing if at all possible.
For your new home, you’ll need a lot of items, so start shopping for furniture, decorations, and other basics right once. Loan officers, on the other hand, pull your credit score frequently in the days leading up to closing. Also, any new account you create or major transaction you make on your credit card will be charged to your credit card.