Begin by speaking with a mortgage lender. This is your first step. In fact, the best thing you can do is to follow through with the loan process until you receive a pre-qualification letter. This tells you and a seller how much the lender is willing to loan.
So, once you have the loan in hand, that must be what you can afford, right? Not necessarily. Your pre-qualification considers factors like your earnings and credit number of factors such as your earnings and credit. It’s not the complete picture, which sometimes leads to problems.
Home Buyers – What Can You Afford
You won’t want to strain to make your monthly mortgage payments. This happens when home buyers rely solely on the pre-qualification letter or dreaming. You may have purchased your dream home, but don’t let the payments haunt you after the purchase.
When determining how much you can afford, consider your overall financial situation. It’s a crucial piece of the puzzle. Although you’re in a decent financial situation now, will future expenses put pressure on your finances? Situations like these:
1. Planning to have children in the next year or so?
2. Do you have children going to college soon?
3. If you own a business, is the financial outlook stable?
4. If you work for a company, are you reasonably positive the company is headed in the right direction?
5. Are you concerned with downsizing?
6. If you’re the sole bread winner, what would happen if you couldn’t work for a few months because of health issues?
These general questions might wake you up to the possibility of over extending yourself on a mortgage. Every situation is different, so take a careful look at your life to make sure you’re committing to a loan you can afford now and for years to come.
If you’re interested in finding a lender before you buy, get in touch with me. I can give you referrals of lenders in the area that my clients have worked with.