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Buying Your First Home: The Mortgage Application Process

If you are in the market for your first home, you should be familiar with the mortgage application process. When you go to fill out a mortgage application you do not need to know which home you are buying. First, home buyers should fill out an application before they ever go house hunting.

Many people do this backwards. They go out and look for homes and find one they are interested in buying. First home buyers are notorious for this. They will go out and find a home and get their heart set on it before they have ever filled out any paperwork. It will save you a lot of time and heartache if you go through the application process first. The application process can take a while. The house you have your eye on could get sold or you may not even qualify to purchase it.

When you do go in to fill out an application be prepared to give detailed information. Information that is needed will include very personal information such as employment, financial information, your income and expenses, as well as information on what type of price range you are looking into buying. (First home buyers will have a general idea of the price range they can afford. However, after they go through the application process they will have a better idea of what they truly can afford.)

You cannot simply go in and write this information down on the application. Lenders will want documentation to back up your claims. This can include W2s, yearly pay stubs, account numbers of any outstanding debts, bank statements, tax returns and more. Lenders may even contact you after you have filled out your application to have you bring in more documentation. It may take up to a month or longer before a lender will get back to you on the status of your application.

Once the lender has all of your information that is needed they will run you through the three major credit bureaus. This will tell them if you have any derogatory credit and if you pay your bills on time. If you are uncertain about what may be on your credit reports, you should investigate them prior to filling out a mortgage application. You can obtain your credit reports from the three major credit bureaus online or by calling them directly. If you find that there are mistakes on your credit report it is a good idea to get them corrected before you ever consider buying. First home buyers are often let down to discover that even late bills can reduce their chances of financing a home. In addition, knowing what your credit report says can easily tell you what you need to work on (if anything) to receive a good financing rate.

When you are going through the application process lenders will ask you how much money you want to spend on purchasing a home. They will compare this number against all of your personal financial information to determine if that is a feasible figure for you. If it is not they will tell you. However, that is not the end of it. When you find a home you want they will send out an appraiser. The appraiser will give an opinion of the home’s value. What the appraiser says will be very important in whether you will qualify for the mortgage.

You should know that lenders will generally only lend between 80 to 90 percent of the home’s appraised value. It will be up to you to come up with the rest as a down payment for the home you plan on buying. First home buyers are sometimes caught off guard by this figure. With a little number crunching you should be able to get a ballpark figure of the down payment on homes. Do not price yourself out of the game!