How Much House Can You Afford?

Pre-Loan Approval

Before you start the home design process, home builder/contractor selection review, the land purchase process and/or realtor meetings; you must know how much house you can afford.

In the next few articles, we'll define the steps and information to gather for your pre-loan review. Local banks, credit unions and mortgage brokers are usually the first place to start.

Once your home designer, contractors, realtors and lenders have this information; they can help you define, design and build your new house.

Once you know this number, you can take action to

• select an affordable home design,
• choose property that complements your lifestyle,
• upgrade/fix your credit rating to provide the best home loan interest rate
  
• define the best construction process for your new home
  
• pick a home builder that's qualified to build the home design and
  
• review/choose the best lender and their terms for your financing.

Designing and building a new home is a long process. Everyone needs to know this number to properly serve your needs. So start here first.

Home Financing: "The REAL Free Credit Report"

Financing your home is at the start of the whole design and build process of your home. Verifying your credit prior to review by a bank or mortgage company should the first thing you do.

AnnualCreditReport.com

This is the only consumer credit report website that Consumer Reports recommended and featured in their August 2007 Issue. Why? It's absolutely free.

AnnualCreditReport.com is the official site to help consumers obtain their free credit report without any sales obligation for any trial services or other credit protection services.

This central site allows you to request a free credit file disclosure, commonly called a credit report, once every 12 months from each of the nationwide consumer credit reporting companies: Equifax, Experian and TransUnion.

This free credit report can be requested through this website, by phone or by mail. https://www.annualcreditreport.com

Fight identity theft by monitoring and reviewing your credit report. You may request your free credit report online, by phone or through the mail. Free credit reports requested online are viewable immediately upon authentication of identity. Free credit reports requested by phone or mail will be processed within 15 days of receiving your request.