Do you know how much house you can afford?

Before you look for a house, it's essential to determine how much you can afford to pay and what your financing options are. Deciding that you have to have a certain size house on a certain size lot and in a certain neighborhood is great. But if it means struggling to make ends meet, you should downsize your dreams sooner rather than later. How much you can afford depends on interest rates, how much debt you're carrying, and how much you have to put down on a home. A substantial drop in interest rates means buying a home is now more affordable. More than a half million new homebuyers can afford to purchase a home since interests dropped.

Getting Pre-Qualified

Pay a visit to a local lender and get pre-qualified or pre-approved for your home loan. Or, you can click onto our mortgage calculator and get a sense of how much you can afford to spend.

How does that work?

Being pre-qualified means you tell your lender how much you earn, how much you owe, and what you have in cash and assets. Being pre-approved means your lender has verified your information, pulled a credit report, and committed to fund your loan should it appraise out in value.

Tips for getting approved:

Don’t Move Money Around -- The mortgage underwriter (the person who actually approves your loan) will probably require a complete paper trail of all the withdrawals and deposits. You may be required to produce cancelled checks, deposit receipts, and other seemingly inconsequential data, which could get quite tedious.

Should You Change Jobs? -- For most people, changing employers will not really affect your ability to qualify for a mortgage loan, especially if you are going to be earning more money.  For some homebuyers, however, the effects of changing jobs can be disastrous to your loan application.

Keep your credit scores up -- If you don't know how to check your credit, go to www.mycreditkeeper.com to see it.

Disclaimer: Prudential Georgia Intracoastal Properties REALTORS® shall not be responsible for any typographical error, misinformation, misprints and shall be held totally harmless. All information deemed reliable but not guaranteed and should be independently verified. All properties are subject to prior sale, change or withdrawal. Prudential Georgia Intracoastal Properties REALTORS®, 3640 Community Rd., Brunswick, GA 31520 and Licensed in Georgia. Contents of this web site © 2003-2007.

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