Get your finances in order before buying a home!

PRLog (Press Release) - Mar. 6, 2013 - 1. Before you get too involved with purchasing your new home, take some time to look over your finances. If you are a first time buyer, living rent free, or haven’t been saving money, you will likely have to make lifestyle changes in order to get yourself in a position to purchase your new home.

Here is a rough formula that the lenders use to see how much of your monthly income you can spend on a home.

EX: Add up the monthly house payment (principal, interest, taxes & insurance). Then divide that amount from your gross monthly income. The payments really shouldn’t be more than 28% to 30%.

(Monthly payment $1,112.61 divided by income ($5,184.52) = 21.460%.

2. Ok, now that you have roughly figured out how much money you would need for your housing, can you afford it? Don’t forget you will need extra money every month towards other bills now that you own your new home. I suggest that you start putting money aside right away. This will get you used to living off of a lower income every month and help you save for your down payment. Also there will be closing costs that you will have to pay.

3. Credit scores play a very important role in financing. They will determine how much the lender’s are willing to loan a client and at what interest rate they will charge. If you know that you have credit issues, I would suggest taking care of those concerns first before applying for a mortgage. The lower your credit score, the higher the interest rate. Also most lenders are looking for at least a 640 credit score. Also avoid taking on new credit or applying for new credit since this will also affect your credit score.

4. Once you have prepared yourself financially to purchase your new home, it is time to get prequalified with a lender. The lender will take an application with all the important information, including name, social security #, assets, liabilities, and monthly income. They will then pull your credit and put a loan scenario together for you. If you qualify for a mortgage, they will then send your realtor a prequalification letter when you sign a contract on your new home.

Bay to Bay Lending in Tampa, FL is here to help you. Contact Laurie Toland via phone at (813) 642-7361 or reach out to me via email at laurie@baytobaylending.com. Access our mortgage loan calculator here: http://www.baytobaylending.com/mortgageLoanCalc.html

Whether you are seeking to purchase a new home or refinancing (http://www.baytobaylending.com/home.html) your current Tampa Mortgage (http://www.baytobaylending.com/rentvsBuyCalc.html), let us show you the way. Bay to Bay Lending is associated with the nation's unsurpassed pricing leaders. The Bay to Bay Lending team of Tampa Mortgage Brokers (http://www.baytobaylending.com/staff/) will make the mortgage process as simple as possible. We pride ourselves on offering a premier level of customer support and we look forward to getting you the best financing available.

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