Experience Buying a Home

Hey there guys.  You know, we've been in our home for about 4 years now and a question that we get asked a lot is how difficult is it to get a home?  I usually answer that it's a different expereince for everyone.  People with an awful credit score and no money will have a more difficult time securing a home than those with an awesome score and lots of cash on hand.  Our experience wasn't a bad one, but it wasn't so smooth either.  I didn't have the best of credit and becuase of that, it took awhile to get pre-approved.  We needed to show that we were more than able to pay for the mortgage.  And on top of that, we had money in the bank to show that we had some cash saved for a rainy day.  All in all, I'm sure that if I were to have had a better credit score, the process would have been easier and we would have saved a lot more money in interest.

It's definitely better to be pre-approved as opposed to pre-qualified.  Pre-approved means that the bank has looked at your finances and has approved your loan for a set amount where as pre-qualified is not.  Those with the pre-approved bank statement are looked at as the serious buyers, since they've gone through the work of verifying their finances, and will be better received by home real estate people.  And again, this process is a lot easier if your credit score is better than average.  The lower that score is, the more the bank is going to look at your expenses, income, and debt to assure that you will be able to cover the mortgage.  I simply cannot stress that enough.

Doing a simple free credit score check online can save you a huge hassle when you finally decide to buy a home.  Do yourself and your family a favor and get all your finances in order now before you are being told by the bank that it's not going to happen.  It's not easy, but it's definitely doable.  Happy house hunting and best of luck, friends.  Later!