Trying to buy a home in 2016..Any help/advice welcome

[Anonymous]

Im new here! Looking for any  advice and tips on steps to take 1 year prior to doing this. Thank you so much in advance

[Revelate]

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@Anonymous wrote:

Im new here! Looking for any  advice and tips on steps to take 1 year prior to doing this. Thank you so much in advance

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Clean up your credit report as much as possible; analyze your finances and I would suggest doing the budgetting exercise right now instead of waiting for the mortgage application.

Beyond that if you are going to need your credit report for something, try to get it done immediately (some things can't be helped, but non-essential things which can be either done now or delayed till after mortgage such as credit card applications ought to be done either soon or way late, but not in the middle ideally).

Hrm, there's a bunch of random little things I wish I would've done in the months leading up to my mortgage app, but at a year out there's plenty of time for virtually everything other than credit report fixing (which can take time) and saving up money for downpayment, fees, reserves.

[Anonymous]

How much of a down payment do you think? I am in the process of cleaning up my report as well as gardening..I'm going to do some GW letters as well as calling credit report agencies today to see about EEs.
I would like to spend $200K or less on a home. Not sure how much to save but I did start saving a few months ago. Also, what is the mortgage thing you're talking about working on now? Thank you for your help

[Revelate]

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@Anonymous wrote:
How much of a down payment do you think? I am in the process of cleaning up my report as well as gardening..I'm going to do some GW letters as well as calling credit report agencies today to see about EEs.
I would like to spend $200K or less on a home. Not sure how much to save but I did start saving a few months ago. Also, what is the mortgage thing you're talking about working on now? Thank you for your help

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 Put simply, more cash more better.  From where you're at now I'd be saving everything I could rationally, either for use in downpayment, reserves, fees, and all the rest of the expenses that go with this... i.e. I have to pay $375 for my condo's home owner's association to drag and drop a bunch of PDF's to burn to CD with a mouse.  Maybe 10 minutes of work being generous.

I get the impresson somedays I'm in the wrong line of work hah.  So many little bits of stupidity and poorly optimized things in the mortgage process... would suggest over the next year learning what you can about the process, I did non-trivial self-education but I got surprised more than once along the way.  

[mynameainttracy]

All of the above. One thing I did was get a realtor to get me access to the local mls. They give it for free to local buyers to let them look at potential properties. Watching this for over a year gave me a tremendous amount of knowledge about the trends in my area. I learned that things here close for 97% or more of list, that nice properties move quick and that what I could expect to find for what I was willing to spend. It is a good way to get some realistic expectations about what is out there.

[Anonymous]

The best advice I can offer is save as much money as you can while reducing debt. So many minor things come up that add up to alot of money, not just down payment but inspections, moving costs, minor repairs, ect. Since your here I can only assume you're working on improving your credit, that one kind of is a given. Also get an idea of where you want to live, never too soon, and can save you some research down the road. Learn as much as you can about the home buying process, it can get overwhelming.

[Anonymous]

Increase assets, reduce debt, and keep your credit as clean as possible. The very minimum amount of cash you will need in your own accounts (without downpayment assistance or a gift) is 3.5% of the purchase price.

[Anonymous]

OPT OUT OF PRESCREENED OFFERS. Too many people have been stung by some junk debt buyer slapping a garbage collection on their report after that triple pull on their report. Other than that, save more money than you think you need. I used a dedicated sub account so that all my funds neccessary would be in one place, properly seasoned. Revelates suggestions are a great place to begin as well. 

[Anonymous]

+1 to the PP above me who said put all your funds in one place. Not necessary to do this a year out, but 60 days is good. One of the biggest hassles of the mortgage process is sourcing funds. If you have them all in one account with no large deposits in the most recent statement, you'll be golden.

Other than that, keep your scores up, util low, the usual stuff.

[Anonymous]

Thank you so much to everyone who has commented so far. I am taking all of this in and it looks like some good tips to follow.

I am definitely here to repair blemishes on my CRs and to maximize my credit while putting what I can away in savings. How much is a good solid amount. Someone said 3.5% is the minimum. Did anyone else start with higher or lower? Success? Luck? Problems?

I am trying to educate myself as much as possible to make my dream a reality