Tips to Help You Prepare to Meet with a Lender

Getting started with the property market usually means taking on a mortgage. This article has great tips to help you prepare to meet with a lender or a broker.

If you have started to look for your dream home then you likely know that it isn’t going to come cheap. Not because houses aren’t worth the cost but solely because this is the nature of the property market. This will likely mean that you will need to take on a mortgage if you are ever to move into your dream home.

Preparing to Meet with a Lender

Patriot Title Agency knows just how important each meeting with a lender or mortgage broker is and has prepared the following post with tips to help you prepare for your first meeting.

Incorrect Past Activity

It doesn’t matter if you are sitting down with the lender themselves or a broker who will help you to find the best mortgage available to you, the first thing that each will do is bring up a copy of your credit report and your credit score. This information will show them all of your past credit activity, such as any outstanding debts, default listings, and payment history. It will also show an aggregated creditworthiness scores based on all of this information. The worst thing which can happen during this is for false or inaccurate information to be displayed which both causes your credit score to be lowered and leaves you trying to explain inconsistencies with you genuinely don’t understand. The easiest way to prevent this from happening during your meeting is to request your own copy of your credit report and work your way through it to ensure that all of the information contained in it is both yours and accurate. When you have this report, look for the following instances where:

• Your name has been misspelled
• There is an application for credit which you don’t remember making
• An outstanding debt isn’t yours
• There is an address which you have never lived at or used for correspondence

If you can see any of the above,  before you meet with anybody, be sure to clear this all up and ensure that your credit report and history is an accurate representation of your activity. Before you sign on the dotted line to purchase a property, be sure that you have completed all of your due diligence, including requesting a thorough title search and taking out a policy for title insurance in Canton, OH. For a one-time fee, title insurance in Canton, OH provides homeowners with peace of mind over their home ownership, with financial protection against any claims of ownership. To find out more, speak with an expert at Patriot Title Agency today by calling 1-866-475-3005.

Get an Understanding of Your Current Position

Once you are sure your credit history is correct it’s time to get your credit-present in order. After all, once a lender is satisfied with your credit score they will want to know about your current position, including your income streams and any outstanding debts and repayments you have. The easiest way to prepare this information ready for your meeting is to create a budget. In this budget, include all of your income streams matched against your outgoing monthly expenses. If you have expenses which you apportion for each month, be sure to include these pro-rata amounts. As you create this budget, remember that your lender won’t be interested in seeing how much you spend on gas or the type of groceries you buy. Keep it high level with titles such as home expenses and vehicle expenses. With this complete, prepare the following accompanying information:

• Pay stubs or statements substantiating your income
• Any statements which show ongoing savings
• Three months of debt statements, including credit and store cards

Consider Waiting to Apply

Every time that you sit down with a lender or a broker, they access your credit details, whether it’s to review an application or, in some cases, decline it. Each time either of these occurs, your credit rating decreases. For this reason, it’s important that each time you apply, you are in the best position for approval. As an example, if you are expecting to receive a large bonus in a couple months, instead of putting it as ‘projected income’ in your budget, wait until you have the money in your account and can show it as actual savings or even better, use it to increase your deposit. Conversely, if you are expecting to use this bonus to pay off one or many credit card debts, consider waiting until these have been cleared. A lender will look more favorably upon an application with fewer debts and expenses.

Title Insurance in Canton, OH Can Protect Your Investment

Before you buy, ensure that the title of your dream home is clear of issues and you have it protected. Speak with Patriot Title Agency before you sign by calling 1-866-475-3005 to learn about how title insurance in Canton, OH can provide you with financial protection from claims made against the ownership of your home.