In recent years many first time homebuyers have looked to get pre-approved for their mortgage BEFORE they seriously shop for a home. This is due in no small part to the combined effort of the mortgage industry and the real estate industry to educate buyers that they should take the important first step and get pre-approved. As much as you want to know how much home you can buy a realtor wants to know how much you are pre-approved for so they direct their search efforts better.

When people are considering purchasing a home surprisingly people do not have their priorities mixed up. More often than not people know exactly how much home they want. Essentially two things restrict you on how much you can afford; the size of your down payment and the cash available for closing costs. The second thing is the amount of money per month you are willing to pay.

Ask one of our Mortgage Planning Specialists about our ALL FEES FREETM Plan to pay all your closing costs and therefore maximize the amount of money available for your down payment.

The size of your down payment has to be a minimum of 5% of the intended purchase price. You must always remember that your closing costs will be approximately 2% of the purchase price and you must plan for this as well. Therefore if you only have $5000 of cash available, your maximum house will be approximately $72,000.

Keep in mind if you are unable to put down the 5% one of our Mortgage Professionals can help you with a 0 down mortgage product to help you get started.

If cash is not a problem, then the second item to consider is how much per month you want to pay. We usually recommend you compare this to the amount you are currently paying for rent. Can you pay more, if so how much? Keep in mind you now have property taxes to pay, in addition your utilities may be higher. The best thing to do is to do a very detailed household budget so that you can determine how much per month you can pay excluding the amount you allocated for utilities. Once this is done then contact one of our mortgage planning specialists today and we can pre-qualify you over the phone in five minutes or less, this will tell you exactly how much home you can buy for the amount you budgeted for a monthly payment.