What Goes into Getting a Mortgage Approval?

Published by julia | Filed under Buyer / Seller Tips, Market Trends, Miscellaneous, Pinellas County Homes, Real Estate

When applying for a mortgage, the lender you have chosen will take many different factors into account. These factors not only influence what type of loans you can qualify for, but also what your monthly payments will be and how many years you will take to pay off the loan . Knowing these factors and doing what you can to improve them all can make a tremendous difference when you go and see your lender to start the process that will get you your new house.

Some of the basic factors apply for just about any loan, but are especially important if you are trying to get a mortgage. The big one is definitely credit. You’ll need excellent credit to get the best rates, or even to qualify for a loan at all, depending on the lender.

How good is your credit? You can find out by getting copies of all of your credit reports from the 3 major consumer credit reporting companies and checking each one for errors. You should also check to see how many bad marks there are against your credit, and do what you can to improve them, so you’ll have a better chance of qualifying for a home loan.

Quite often, there are errors in your credit report that can be corrected in just a few weeks. Once they’re fixed, this helps boost your score. If you have credit cards, pay them off as well as any other outstanding bills. Also, a nice, large down payment will always improve your chances of being approved. If your credit isn’t completely top notch, the bigger the down payment, the more likely you are to get improved. If your credit is great, you can still put down as much as possible to lower the monthly payments or decrease the total loan time.

Above all else, don’t lie to your lender. If you tell them you are a supervisor of a power plant and have been for many years, and they find out you are a a mail man who has only had the job for 6 months, you won’t get the loan. Be honest and your lender will do their best to work with you.