You will want to speak with the local mortgage loan officer upfront. Ideally a loan officer who, as a Fannie Mae Freddie Mac lender and has access to various mortgage loan programs including FHA loans, conventional loans VA loans, USDA loans and home path loans. Put another way, the lender that has the full gamut is your best choice. So once you pick a mortgage lender, asked them if they offer all of these loan programs or you can visit our Sonoma County Loan Programs list to determine if your lender has all of the available loan products.

Your lenders can ask you about your credit credit score. Don’t want to know if you have an idea of what your credit score actually it’s. If you have a least a 620 credit score, you’re in business for getting a mortgage loan. If you don’t have it at 620 credit score or if you don’t know what your credit score actually is. The local mortgage lender if they’re worth their salt, will then want to know about any open lines of credit you might have such as an auto loan, credit card or even a personal loan. This is so they can determine if there’s something to it you have from a credit standpoint that would support a decent credit score followed by questions about any charge-offs, collections or possible delete currencies, things that could negatively impact credit score.

Once the lender has determined a credit score that is doable for helping you with your Sonoma County homebuying efforts, they’ll want to know about debt obligations. Not what you actually pay per month on each debt obligation, but rather what the minimum monthly payment is on any auto loan but you might have, personal loan, student loan, child support, alimony, installment loan, basically any credit obligation, they will want the minimum monthly payment because that is what they will use in your qualifying ratios. Real quick: qualifying ratios such as your debt to income ratio is what mortgage lenders want to be no more than 45% of your gross monthly income. Every liability you are obligated to pay a monthly basis including a potential housing payment is added together and divided your gross monthly income as long as it is 45% or lower, you’re in good shape. Once they have an idea of what you’re minimum debt obligations are dumb move forward in the next step in the qualifying process.

The next step in the home buying process in order to get preapproved for a mortgage, is income and job history. Are you self-employed or are UW to do as in being an employee for a company. Another way to look at it is to you receive a W-2 at the end of the year or 1099 at the end of the year? The difference is simple, in order to get preapproved so you can purchase a house you have to have consistent income and job history and/or plausible explanations about job gats, income raises or decreases, change in employment status such as going from W-2 to self-employed etc. Make no mistake, qualifying for mortgage loan financing is a pre-audit. It is essentially, the questioning and uncovering of your full and complete financial package to determine how much house you can buy, if you can get a loan to buy a home at all as well as what sort of mortgage loan program will be most suitable for you over the long haul.

The last step in the Sonoma County homebuying process is down payment/assets.

How much money do you have to play with so your lender can work out some viable scenarios for you and give you a few different choices so you can make the most appropriate decision as to which purchase price, monthly payment and down payment you are most comfortable with in order to secure the right house. This is the part of the process that becomes the most fun because many loans, have several different possibilities and variables to them which makes the home buying process unique. For example let’s say you have $10,000 to work with and you’re looking to purchase a Sonoma County home for $300,000. You would be most suited going with an FHA loan that would allow you to purchase the home with a little down payment. For example you’d only need three and half percent down so you need another $500. Such a scenario would be very makes sense because of the fact extra $500 could come in the form of your next paycheck. When you’re having a discussion with your lender upfront about how much you think the real to qualify for don’t tell them 20% down, or 10% down that doesn’t really solve the problem, give them a number, $5000, $10,000, hundred thousand dollars whatever the amount of money is given that money up front so they know how to qualify you faster, easier and certainly more efficiently.

Find some more information on homebuying on these relevant posts and pages:

Why people cannot qualify for mortgages

How your credit score affects your ability to get a mortgage

The top 10 reasons why you cannot buy a house

Buying your first home

Buying versus renting a home, will an FHA preapproval work for you?

You can also start by getting preapproved to purchase a house with us online today, it’s free and of course there is no obligation of any kind.