How To Prepare To Buy Your First Home With Bad Credit

Consider getting out of debt or at least reducing your debt and saving up an emergency fund before you purchase your first home.

How to prepare to buy your first home with bad credit. If you need to open additional tradelines warren suggests getting a major credit card like a visa or a mastercard not a store credit card at least six months before you apply for a mortgage and using it for items you would buy anyway. Federal housing administration fha loan insurance. The fha helps people qualify for loans by assuming the risk if the borrower that s you defaults. Options exist that can help first time home buyers boost their credit scores find a lender and even save up a good down payment. When your fico credit score the score lenders evaluate when deciding to loan you money is below what s acceptable to conventional lenders one popular option is to apply for u s.

You also need to pay for taxes and insurance related to your home. Of course there s your down payment typically between 3 5 and 20 of the purchase price. These costs add up quickly and if you are not financially prepared you may end up in a bad position. However if you can make a 10 down payment you can probably get approved with a credit score between 500 579. Pay down the balances on your credit cards to less than 30 of the credit limit.

In addition to making sure your credit score is in order you ll also want to consider the cash you ll need to make buying your first home a reality. Never charge more than 30 percent of your allowed limit and pay it off in full every time you get your bill she adds. Clean up your credit report. If you have a 1000 limit on a card with a 600 balance your credit utilization ratio is 60 which is considered very high. The ratio of the balance on your credit cards compared to the credit limit is called your credit utilization ratio.

The minimum credit score needed to get an fha loan is usually around a 580. A down payment of at least 3 5 of the home s purchase price if you have a 580 credit score a down payment of at least 10 if you have a credit score of 500 579 extra money to cover mortgage insurance anytime someone puts down less than 20 on the purchase of a home the lender will add private mortgage insurance pmi. If you re a first time home buyer or haven t purchased a home in the last 3 years you could qualify for this loan.