Purchasing a home today is harder than ever. If you have bad credit, it can seem nearly impossible. Thankfully, there are things that you can do to lessen the chance of rejection when it comes time to buy a home of your own, even if your credit is less than stellar.

2. Table of Contents
Tips for
Buying a Home with
3
Bad Credit
Am I Ready
to Buy
9
a Home?

3. Tips for
Buying a
Home with
Bad Credit

4. P urchasing a home today is harder
than ever. If you have bad credit,
it can seem nearly impossible. Thankfully,
there are things that you can do to lessen the
chance of rejection when it comes time to buy
a home of your own, even if your credit is less
than stellar.
Here are a few simple things that you can
do to raise the odds in your favor.

5. Check Your Credit Report
In a lot of cases, a bad credit doesn’t stem
from something you have done, but rather from
honest errors and mistakes on the report. It is
important to review not only your credit rating
on a regular basis, but also the report that goes
along with it. After all, that’s the only way that
you’re going to catch the mistakes, out of date
information, and evidence of fraud that could
be bringing your score down.

6. Get Pre-Approved for a
Pre-
Loan
If you’re preparing to buy a home, chances
are you’ve got a steady income, and you under-
stand how to budget. If this is a case, take
some time and try to see if you can get pre-
qualified for a loan. If you can, this will go a
long way to offering an assurance to the pro-
spective seller that you have the capabilities of
meeting the demands of home ownership. Not
only that, but you’ll know exactly how much
you can afford to borrow; something that some
buyers fail to realize. Plus, it can be a great
way to rebuild your credit. Paying a mortgage
on time can boost your credit score immensely.

7. Bide Your Time
Perhaps one of the most overlooked strate-
gies to buy a home when you have bad credit is
to wait. If you take the steps to improve your
credit, such as paying your bills on time, pay-
ing down your credit cards, and clearing up
any misinformation about your credit history,
the chances of you getting a mortgage loan ap-
proved will be greater than ever. Also, it will
give you a chance to save up some money for a
sizable down payment, something that is pretty
much a requirement during these economic
times.

8. By doing these three things, and living in a
manner that is not above your financial means,
you should be able to purchase a house, even if
your credit is less than perfect.

9. Am I Ready
to Buy
a Home?

10. Y ou’ve lived in your own apart-
ment for a while now, and
you’re starting to consider the benefits of
owning your own home. But the question is,
are you ready to buy a home? Today, the real
estate market is certainly working in your
favor. Because the market itself is down, there
are plenty of bargains to be had if you know
where to look. Plus you know that owning a
home can be one of the most successful long
term investments that you can make.

11. If you’re curious to see if home ownership
is in your immediate future, here are a few
things that you should definitely consider.

12. Getting Qualified for a
Mortgage
Before you even start looking for a home to
buy, you have to make sure you can get a
mortgage to pay for it. Generally speaking, the
bank or other lending institution will look at
three main areas of concern. The first is your
credit score, the second is the amount of your
down payment, and the third is your debt to in-
come ratio.
The credit score is a useful indication of
how diligent you have been in paying your
bills and debts on time, a good score indicates
that you may be a good risk for the lending

13. Getting Qualified for a
Mortgage
payment can not only lower the overall amount
of the loan, but also indicates your ability to
save and budget your finances toward a goal.
Needless to say, more banks would be
interested if your down payment is close to
20% or 30% of the purchase price. Finally the
mortgage lender will look at your debt to
income ratio as an indication of whether or
not you can afford the monthly expenses asso-
ciated with owning a home. In order for you to
get qualified or even approved for a mortgage
of any size, you must have strength in at least
two of these three areas.

14. Determining How Much a
Home You Can Afford
Once you’ve gotten approval for a
mortgage, you also want to make sure that the
amount of the potential loan is something that
you truly can afford. What would happen if
you were to lose your job? Or perhaps had a
reduction in income coming in due to injury or
illness? There will be times while you own a
home when things don’t go according to plan.
One option for those times is additional
insurance, either private mortgage insurance or
a specialized home owner’s insurance. Your
mortgage lender or financial advisor should
have information that you can use. Once you

15. Determining How Much a
Home You Can Afford
know that you can truly afford the mortgage
that you’ve been approved for, shopping for a
home will become easier indeed.

17. For more information
about
Boulder Real Estate,
Estate,
please check out
Denver Real Estate.
Estate.