Monday, December 29, 2008

How to Qualify For A Mortgage Loan

Applying for a mortgage loan is quite an important step for many people. However, many are quite adamant about actually applying for the mortgage loan simply because people are not sure what they need to qualify for one. The qualifications of a mortgage loan are actually not that complicated.

Here are some of the general guidelines of how you can qualify for a mortgage loan:

1. If you have filed for bankruptcy, you should wait for at least 2 years since your final discharge date.

2. If you have had an foreclosures, there should have been at least 3 years since the foreclosure had been finalized.

3. You should have had no late payments with your previous credits for at least one year (12 months). But if you have had a great credit record for several years and you had some little occasions of late payment, your application might still be considered. Usually, lenders watch out for late payments that are 30 days behind or more.

4. Your rental payment history might also be checked. You should have punctual payments for at least, the last 2 years to prove that you pay on time.

5. Usually you might get disqualified for a mortgage loan if the government has guaranteed your student loan to be default. However, there are cases the disqualification may be lifted provided that you have renegotiated your repayment schedule for the loan and you have made punctual payments again for the past year.

6. All of your account that is in a collection status should be repaid prior to the application for the mortgage loan.

7. Judgments ordered by the court should already have been paid in full. Those cases that involve child support should have payments that are current and caught up.

8. If you are self-employed or your income is based on commission, you would usually need to have been receiving a steady income from that source for at least two years in such a way that the lender would be able to account for your average income. There may be some exempted cases, however.

9. Lenders would usually only account for bonus or overtime pay as part of the “qualifying” source of income if you have had a history of bonus or overtime pay from your present employer for at least a year or two. Your employer should verify how much overtime hours you have served or how much bonus income you would be getting for such sources of income to be considered.

10. If you have two jobs, your secondary income may usually be counted as part of the qualifying income when you have had a continued history of earning from both jobs in the past two years, otherwise, only one job may be included in the qualifying income.

11. If you have been receiving income through child support, you should have been receiving income consistently. You would be required to submit a history of the payments made for the child support. Usually, if your child support status has just been awarded recently, it might not be considered as a qualifying source of income.

12. If you are currently being sued, or if you are currently involved in any legal matter such as an ongoing divorce suit, you might have to wait until the lawsuit becomes settled before you could apply for a mortgage loan.

What is the point of these qualifications?

Lenders carefully scrutinize your qualifications in order to ascertain how much the maximum amount of money you could afford to pay them ever month. They do so by fitting your information into certain formulas that give fairly accurate predictions. Should these predictions prove that you can afford to pay the monthly dues that will be stipulated by the loan, you are most likely to be granted the mortgage loan.

The importance of having a clean or at least a decent record cannot be over stressed when it comes to getting a mortgage loan. However, if you have had some small stains in your record, lenders provide considerations such as specified above. Knowing these, you can pretty much estimate if you would be able to qualify for a mortgage loan or not.

Tuesday, December 16, 2008

How To Find Poor Credit Home Mortgage Lenders

What would you do if you have very poor credit yet you so desperately want to buy a house and have a home you could call your own?

Relax, there is a solution to your predicament. Though having poor credit would usually make home purchasing a tad difficult, it is not entirely impossible.

The following are some of the options one could consider in finding poor credit lenders.

Ask, ask, ask

It is okay if you ask the seller to be the one who will carry the housing loan. If in case the seller somehow still has money owed on the house, it is possible to acquire a mortgage wraparound.

Basically, this type of mortgage allows one to make a payment every month on a mortgage that is existing as well as additional payment that will cover the other balance.

Pursue an option for lease

Via pursuing an option for lease, this allows one to set the current purchasing price as well as apply a small portion of a particular rent every month towards the down payment.

After each lease period (usually between twelve to thirty six months), the prices should then have increased and should have equity accrued.

Be aware that if such an option is not utilized, money paid to a particular seller will not be returned.

Increase, increase, increase

It is okay to increase the price you are more than willing to pay to a particular seller.
After which, asking the seller to credit the money to you back in order for that to be utilized as a down payment for cost closing is perfectly fine.

Do not be afraid to borrow

Borrowing money from relatives and friends would help in defraying costs for closing as well as in increasing down payment.

Also, borrowing from retirement or pension plans is another way to increase down payment.

Maybe a mortgage broker could help

Availing the mortgage that is best for you could probably be helped by availing the services of a broker.

This could be done by contacting local and state realtor boards for the list of brokers in your local area. You could also ask around your own circle of real estate friends or agents for additional references.

All in all, buying a home is easy as long as you are willing to spend the necessary time to expend the energy needed to buy the home of your dreams. Because, believe it or not, it is possible.