{"id":6908,"date":"2018-02-20T10:05:18","date_gmt":"2018-02-20T17:05:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.virtuance.com\/?p=6908"},"modified":"2018-03-06T13:48:40","modified_gmt":"2018-03-06T20:48:40","slug":"6-ways-home-buyers-mess-getting-mortgage","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/staging.virtuance.com\/member\/blog\/6-ways-home-buyers-mess-getting-mortgage\/","title":{"rendered":"6 Ways Home Buyers Mess Up Getting a Mortgage"},"content":{"rendered":"
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By Daniel Bortz | Source: realtor.com<\/a><\/h5>\n
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Getting a\u00a0mortgage<\/a>\u00a0is, by general consensus, the\u00a0most treacherous part of buying a home. In a recent survey, 42% of\u00a0home buyers said they found the mortgage experience \u201cstressful,\u201d and 32% found it \u201ccomplicated.\u201d Even lenders agree that it’s often a\u00a0struggle.<\/p>\n

\u201cA lot can go wrong,\u201d says\u00a0Staci Titsworth<\/strong>, regional manager at PNC Mortgage in Pittsburgh.<\/p>\n

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If you’re out to buy a home, you have to be vigilant. To clue you into the pitfalls, here are six of the most common ways people mess up\u00a0getting a mortgage.<\/p>\n

Waiting until you can make a 20% down payment<\/h2>\n

A\u00a020% down payment<\/a>\u00a0is the golden number when applying for a conventional home loan, since it enables you to avoid paying\u00a0private mortgage insurance (PMI)<\/a>, an extra monthly fee of 0.3% to 1.15% of your total loan amount. But with mortgage rates where they are today\u2014in a word,\u00a0low<\/em>\u2014waiting for that magic 20% could be a\u00a0huge mistake, since the more time passes, the\u00a0higher mortgage rates and home prices\u00a0may go!<\/p>\n

All of which means it may be worth discussing your home-buying prospects with\u00a0lenders right now. To get a ballpark figure of what you can afford and how your down payment affects your finances, punch your salary and other numbers into\u00a0a\u00a0home affordability calculator<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Meeting with only one mortgage lender<\/h2>\n

According to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau,\u00a0about half of U.S. home buyers only meet with one mortgage lender before signing up for a home loan. But these borrowers could be missing out in a big way.\u00a0Why? Because\u00a0lenders’ offers and interest rates vary, and\u00a0even nabbing a\u00a0slightly\u00a0<\/em>lower interest rate can save you big bucks over the long haul.<\/p>\n

In fact, a borrower taking out a 30-year fixed rate conventional loan can\u00a0get rates that vary by more than half a percent, the CFPB has found. So, getting an interest rate of 4.0% instead of 4.5% on a $200,000, 30-year fixed mortgage translates into savings of approximately $60 per month, or\u00a0$3,500 over the first five years.<\/p>\n

So to make sure you’re getting the best deal possible,\u00a0meet with at least three mortgage lenders. You\u2019ll want to start your search early (ideally, at least 60 days before you start seriously looking at homes). When you meet with each lender, get what’s called a\u00a0good-faith estimate<\/a>, which breaks down the terms of the mortgage, including the interest rate and fees, so that you can make an apples-to-apples comparison between offers.<\/p>\n

Getting pre-qualified rather than pre-approved<\/h2>\n

Mortgage pre-qualification and mortgage pre-approval<\/a>\u00a0may sound alike, but they\u2019re completely different. Pre-qualification entails a basic overview of a borrower\u2019s ability to get a loan. You provide a mortgage lender with information\u2014about your income, assets, debts, and credit\u2014but you don’t need to produce any paperwork to back it up. In return, you\u2019ll get a rough estimate of what size loan you can afford, but it’s by no means a guarantee that you’ll actually get approved for the loan when you go to buy a home.<\/p>\n

Mortgage pre-approval<\/a>, meanwhile, is an in-depth process that involves a lender running a credit check and verifying your income and assets. Then an underwriter does a preliminary review of your financial portfolio and, if all goes well, issues a letter of pre-approval\u2014a written commitment for financing up to a certain loan amount.<\/p>\n

Bottom line? If you’re serious about buying a house, you need to be pre-approved, since many sellers will accept offers only from pre-approved buyers, says\u00a0Ray Rodriguez<\/strong>, New York City regional mortgage sales manager at TD Bank.<\/p>\n

Read More…<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Daniel Bortz | Source: realtor.com Getting a\u00a0mortgage\u00a0is, by general consensus, the\u00a0most treacherous part of buying a home. In a recent survey, 42% of\u00a0home buyers said they found the mortgage experience \u201cstressful,\u201d and 32% found it \u201ccomplicated.\u201d Even lenders agree that it’s often a\u00a0struggle. \u201cA lot can go wrong,\u201d says\u00a0Staci Titsworth, regional manager at PNC […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14503,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[4,47],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.virtuance.com\/member\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6908"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.virtuance.com\/member\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.virtuance.com\/member\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.virtuance.com\/member\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/14503"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.virtuance.com\/member\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6908"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/staging.virtuance.com\/member\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6908\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6910,"href":"https:\/\/staging.virtuance.com\/member\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6908\/revisions\/6910"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.virtuance.com\/member\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6908"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.virtuance.com\/member\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6908"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.virtuance.com\/member\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6908"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}