How to Get Prequalified on a Home Loan

Video Transcript

"Getting pre qualified for a home loan can seem like a difficult task. I'm Richard Blake and I'm here to explain to you how to get pre qualified for a home loan. Generally a lender or bank is going to look at three items when you're purchasing a home. They're going to look at your income, they're going to look at your credit scores, and then also how much money you have to put down on a house. In the past, historically speaking, a good rule of thumb was to take about three times whatever your annual income was, and that would give you a good idea of how much home you could afford. For example, if you made fifty thousand dollars a year, you would be shopping for a home in the one hundred fifty thousand dollar range. Over the last five or six years, a financing options have changed dramatically so that doesn't necessarily hold true as much anymore. interest rates are a historical load right now, and there are several different programs that allow for first time home buyers and that sort of thing to purchase homes a little more expensive then what they could've, you know, ten years ago. I highly recommend you speak with your local real estate agent as well as a local real estate broker, mortgage broker. Generally your real estate agent is going to be able to push, shoot you int he right direction of a good mortgage broker in the area, and that mortgage broker is going to be able to pre-qualify you. What you want to bring to the table when you meet with that person is your W nines, all of your tax form information, as well as all of your debt information as far as your credit card statements, all that sort of thing. What they want to do, is they want to see how much money you have coming in, or just how much you have going out. So, for example, all of your credit cards that you're paying monthly, possibly your current rent, if you have child support payments, anything that, you know, money that you have consistently every month that you're paying for is going to be used when calculating how much you can pre-qualify for in a home loan. And this is all stuff that you're going to want to have up front to submit to that mortgage broker. It'll save you a world of time, it'll save them a lot of time, and it'll make the process a little bit easier for you. So, again, contact your local real estate agent as well as your local real estate mortgage broker that they point you in the direction to. And bring that information with you, it'll make the process much easier for you. I'm RIchard Blake, thank you for your time, you have a great day."