Questions You Will Have to Answer Before You Get a Mortgage

There are many questions that a potential lender will ask you and your answers will have to be accurate every time. They will not approve your mortgage application until they get all of the answers that they seek, after all they are potentially going to be lending you a huge sun and they need to know that you will be able to pay it back. So you will have to have a certain amount of creditworthiness.

A potential lender is going to ask you about your income and your employment. Not only will they ask where you work and what it is that you do, they will also ask you how long you have been at the same company. They will also ask about the way you make your money, for example do you earn a salary or are you pain strictly on commission? This is a very important question and if you are only paid on commission you could find yourself with a higher interest rate.

Do you have a lot of other debt? This is another important questions because if you do then the lender might figure that you will have a hard time paying them their money back. The amount that you pay towards these debts pretax each month will affect your mortgage in a big way.

Having a lot of money in the bank is always a good thing. Your lender will want to see statements of your bank accounts and they will take into consideration how much will still be in there once you have paid your down payment on the new home. When it comes to the down payment they will also want to know how you are paying it. Are you borrowing the money from another place? An institution or a person?

The reason for this loan will come into play as well. Is this your first home mortgage or are you looking to refinance your current mortgage? The reason you are buying the home if that is what you are doing will be talked about as well. Is this going to be your primary residence or a vacation home or will it be an investment property? This matters as well as what type of property it is. Is the home a one family home or is it a duplex or a condo?

When you are answering all of the multitude of questions you will have to take some care. For example if you have been working at the same company for at least a couple of years this is going to look good. It shows responsibility and stability. And the less debt you are in the better. This means that you will have that much more money around to pay them their money and of course this is their priority. Your debt to income ration should be under 36 percent.

It looks better to lenders if your mortgage will be for a single family home that you will be living in for some time to come and most lenders like you to be paying at least 5 percent of the down payment with money that is yours, not money that you have borrowed from someone else. And if you want to look really good you should have at least a couple of months worth of mortgage payments left over even after you have paid all of the closing costs.

People who are self employed or who work on a contract by contract basis are not look upon as favorably and the same goes for people who have a lot of debt. If your credit cards are maxed out that is definitely a bad thing.

Martin Lukac - EzineArticles Expert Author

Martin Lukac, represents http://www.RateEmpire.com, a finance web-company specializing in real estate/mortgage market. We specialize in daily updates, rate predictions, mortgage rates and more. Find low home loan mortgage interest rates from hundreds of mortgage companies! Visit http://www.RateEmpire.com today