Tips to Figure out Your Price Range
When you’ve decided that you’re ready to buy a house, it can be tempting to start looking at listings right away. But the last thing you want to do is find the perfect house and then realize that you can’t afford it. Here are three ways to help you figure out your budget ahead of shopping for your new house.
Understand Your Financial Situation
Before buying, it’s important to familiarize yourself with your current financial situation and review your monthly expenses. Take a look at your savings account and consider how much money you could realistically afford to put toward a down payment. Additionally, learning your credit score and your debt-to-income ratio are steps that don’t take a lot of time and can help prevent potential surprises down the road, when you’re looking into your specific loan options.
Use a Mortgage Calculator
If you want to avoid doing math to see how much you can spend on a new house, we’ve got you covered – check out our home loan calculators to explore your options. They make it easy to compare mortgage terms, predict your monthly mortgage payment and much more.
Get Prequalified
One of the easiest ways to determine how much house you can afford is to get prequalified, which gives you an idea of how big of a loan you may qualify for. To get prequalified, you speak with a qualified loan officer and provide information on your credit, income, assets and debts.
When you’re prequalified, you’ll be able to focus your house hunt on homes within your price range. Plus:
- You can make an offer on the same day you find the perfect home
- The seller can expect fewer delays with your offer, making your offer more attractive
- Sellers are likely to prefer your offer over a buyer who is not prequalified, giving you negotiating power
- A real estate agent will move quicker knowing you’re prequalified and ready to buy
To get prequalified is a brief process, sometimes taking as little as 10 minutes. Plus, with PrimeLending, there’s no cost and no impact on your credit score.
If you’re interested in learning more about getting prequalified, contact a PrimeLending home loan professional today. We’re committed to making the home loan process simple, and we offer a wide variety of home loan options for all kinds of financial situations.
