Before the Mortgage: A Guide to Smart Planning

Buying a home is a huge undertaking, and jumping right in can cause a lot of headaches later. The sooner you start planning, the better off you'll be.

This brief (only 6 pages!) mortgage prep guide will help you lay the groundwork for an easy, hassle-free home loan process.

The guide follows a six-step planning process, but, of course, you can pick and choose:

  • We start with The Home Mortgage as an Investment. This page discusses how home loans compare to other uses of your money, and how managing your mortgage as an investment helps you save.

  • Next we take a look at Mortgage Interest Rates, the cycles they run, and how to use the rate patterns to your advantage.

  • Fixing your Credit looks at just that, from the perspective of years, months, or even days away from securing your mortgage.

  • Learn how to calculate How Much House You Can Afford using the same debt and value ratios lenders use when evaluating your application.

  • Then we take a look at Mortgage Pre-Approval and why it's so important.

  • Finally, we'll give you a comprehensive List of the Necessary Documentation you need to be pre-approved (or approved) for a mortgage.

If you feel like you've got these home loan preliminaries already under your belt, we can still help. Our guides to choosing the right mortgage package and special mortgage products, as well as an array of mortgage calculators are very helpful.

Or, if you're the type to take your work home with you, try our online mortgage course. Give us five minutes a day for ten days, and you'll leave knowing more about mortgages (and being better equipped to shop them) than you ever expected.

Best of all, it's absolutely free!

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