So, you are ready to buy a home, great!!! You have done all your homework, made sure you have a good credit score to get the absolute lowest interest rate, your DTI (Debt To Income) ratio is right where it should be. You’ve researched probably for months on line what homes you are interested in, what neighborhoods, schools and the final decision is probably to find a REALTOR that you can trust to help guide you through the process from finding the house to make an offer on & to the closing table. Sounds pretty simple, right? Sure it’s easy to research REALTORS on line and maybe even actually speak to a few to see who you think will be there for you, ask some friends in the area who they used and if they were happy with them or not. Your REALTOR should be someone that you communicate with fairly regularly and they should be having a dialogue regarding some things you need to be doing and NOT doing while you are working toward closing.
There are probably a few things that you didn’t think about once you went through all that. Let’s say you are under contract to purchase a home everything is going along just fine and you get excited about moving into your new home so you start looking at furniture, appliances, sheds, a riding lawn mower, maybe…..is it a good time to go ahead and make any of those purchases before you have gone to the closing table?? Probably not, because the typical way you will pay for those purchases is with your credit card and if you are on the edge of having to high of a DTI that could push you right out of the house you are hoping to move into. Or say you co-sign a loan for a family member, that counts against your DTI, because you are who that creditor will come looking for if the person that you cosigned for stops making payments.
So, if you are working on getting ready to take that step to Home Ownership be mindful of what you do after you have a prequalification from a mortgage lender and you get under contract to purchase a home. And please talk to your mortgage lender and your REALTOR about things through the process, it could really save you a lot of trouble in the long run.
When searching for homes in the Camp Lejeune, New River Air Station, Jacksonville, Onslow County area please click here to search all active listings.
Ellen Hough, Jacksonville NC Real Estate , specializing in First time home buyers and sellers. Working with EXIT Independence Realty, 910-330-6103 (Cell)
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