No matter how much time you spend on researching and educating yourself about your home purchase, it’s hard to cover every detail. Here are a few tips for avoiding rookie mistakes with your first home purchase.

5 Tips for First Time Home Buyers

1. Save as early as you can: Even if you think you’re years away from buying your first home, try to start saving for your down payment. It makes a huge difference in your monthly payments, and helps avoid paying Private Mortgage Insurance.
2. Be thorough with mortgage shopping: There are countless resources out there that can help you get the best terms for your mortgage. It may seem like a lot of work to shave less than a point off your mortgage rate, but it’ll save you thousands in the long run. If you are looking for a good lender, check out MyMidtownMojo’s Team Lenders HERE!
3. Consult a skeptic: You’re likely to fall in love with a home, and that can make it difficult to take problems seriously. Bring along a skeptical friend or family member who can give you an honest opinion. A word of caution here….don’t bring the ENTIRE family or you will never find your new home!
4. Be patient with getting settled: You’ll be anxious to make your new home your own, but take some time to see how your budget truly shakes out. In other words, hold off on big furniture purchases and remodeling projects. I always tell my buyers to “get the feel” for the house or condo, then look at things you might want to change to make the home function better for your life style!
5. Make sure you’re happy with the neighborhood: The house may be perfect, but don’t discount the surroundings. You don’t want to end up in the suburbs if you’re going to miss walking to your favorite coffee shop, and you don’t want to settle for the city if you’re looking forward to some peace and quiet. If you are planning on a family soon, schools will be important, and will factor into where you want to live. If you are single, or no children…that elevator ride to the street might be the living concept for you! 

We LOVE working with first time home buyers. We have some other great resources and tips at our Intown Atlanta Real Estate Buyers Guide.  But we are happy to sit down and talk about any part of the home buying process, and in fact, that a big part of our initial consultation with new buyers! We are here to help! 

Call us now at 770.713.1505 or complete our Buyer Questionnaire to help us understand what you are looking for in your new home! 

Let these Tips for First Time Home Buyers help you get started!

Just give us a call and we can schedule a time to meet! 

There’s no more important time to work on your credit score than when you’re about to apply for a mortgage. Improving your credit can save you a ton of money—we’re talking about thousands of dollars over the life of the loan. Here are the actions you can take that will have a notable impact on your score.

Thinking About Buying Soon? Make sure Your Credit is in Order

Pay down your credit card balances Credit utilization is one of the biggest factors in determining your credit score. Your credit utilization should at least be less than 30 percent of your limit, and it’s even better if you can get it below 15 percent. This rule applies to both individual cards and your overall credit limit.

It may even be worthwhile to use some of the cash funds you were planning to use for a down payment to pay off credit card balances.

Do no harm While you certainly want to improve your score if possible, at the very least you’ll want to keep it steady. Avoid opening new lines of credit if you’re applying for a mortgage in the very near future. This will cause a hard inquiry to show up on your credit report. Like don’t start shopping for a new car, or a TV or furniture until AFTER you buy your home!

Take care of negative items It’s good practice to check your credit report for negative items a few times a year—you can get one free report from each of the three major bureaus (Experian, Equifax, and TransUnion) per year.

If you find any negative items (collections, late payments, etc.), write a letter to the original creditor. Explain the circumstances that led to the negative item, and request that it be removed from your report. It can be surprisingly effective, and removing a negative item will improve your credit score in a hurry. You can find some good templates for a request letter online.

These are good things to look at, and look at LONG before you start the mortgage application process. This way, you can make changes as needed and be ready to get the needed pre-approval letter from the lender so we can start shopping for your new home!