February 25, 2010
Find Out If You Are You Ready To Own A Home Of Your Own
To some people the thought of buying a home can seem overwhelming. It's a big investment and you may not be sure if you are ready. Review the following items to see if you are ready to achieve your dream.
Your Credit Scores: Your credit scores are calculated by mathematically evaluating your credit history. The higher your credit scores are the easier it will be for you to get a mortgage loan and the better the interest rate and terms will be. If you have regularly made all of your payments on time and have a reasonable amount of credit accounts with low outstanding balances your credit scores should be fine. It certainly pays to check however and make sure that your credit report is accurate. In most cases the credit repositories are required to provide a free report, upon request, once a year.
Income Source: Do you have a regular source of income, such as a job? As long as you have been employed in the same basic line of work for the past 2-3 years (or less in some cases) you should have no problem showing a source of income. Other sources of income, such as trusts or alimony can also be counted as long as you can show that they will continue.
Verifiable Income: Your source of income does have to be verifiable. The lender will want to know not only what you have received in the past, but also that it will continue to be received in the future. For people that are employed this is normally easy to verify. Self employed people or business owners may have to provide additional documentation going back 2-3 years in order to document their income. Or, if you receive income from a source that is not traditional, you will need to provide documentation of this as well.
Other Debts: Mortgage Lenders look at your whole financial situation when considering your ability to repay a mortgage loan. Typically they have a set ratio of your income that they will allow to go towards recurring payments. When doing their calculations this will include your proposed mortgage payment. The more debt payments you have the less that will be left over to go towards your mortgage payments. So again, the lower your other debt payments are the better more that will be left to go towards a mortgage payment.
Down Payment: In most situations you will need to provide a down payment from your own funds. Years ago the minimum down payment was 20%. These days, with the invention of mortgage insurance, the down payment can be as low as 5% or in certain circumstances even lower. The amount required for your down payment may also be affected by your credit scores.
Other Expenses: The purchase of a home brings additional expenses besides just principal and interest. In addition to these expenses the Lender will also have to take into account the need to pay for home-owners insurance, property taxes, mortgage insurance, condo fees, home-owner association fees, etc. All of these expenses will also have to be included when figuring the total amount of income that can be allocated to cover debt payments.
These are the areas you will need to consider when preparing to buy a home. If you have all of these items well in hand then you should have no problem getting approved for a mortgage loan. If there are certain areas that need work you can focus on these areas and be well on your way to owning your own home.For Ontario mortgage rates, and additional information on getting a mortgage loan in Canada please visit http://www.mortgageloancanada.ca