Have you made a decision of leaving your rented house and wish to move into home ownership? Well in this case you already have your work cut out. Plumbing issues are now your liability, not your landlords. A good, dirt free yard is even your duty, not your landlord’s. If the air-conditioning fails in August, you cannot call the landlord, as you are now accountable. Yes, a great amount of work.
However, the first difficult step you will have to take is finding the money to buy your house in the first place. Barring winning the lottery or inheriting a fortune, you will have to take out a loan in order to buy your house, and that can be very complicated. There are many different types of loans, from 100% financing loans, which don’t require a down payment, to Government loans for qualifying applications, to conventional loans which require a hefty down payment. Here are a few tips to help you successfully transact this tricky bit of financial business.
The most popular loan, the one which most people think of when they think of getting the loan, is a conventional loan. This loan, however, may not be the best loan out there. In order to get a conventional loan, the borrower must have good credit and make a down payment of at least 3%, which could easily end up being a large amount of money. On a $100 000 house, for example, the down payment would be $3000. In addition, there are any number of things which could appear on your credit report that would prevent you from being able to apply for this loan. There are, however, a number of other options.
There are, for example, government loans, and 100% financing loans. 100% financing loans are available through the conventional means, but it requires perfect credit. Other means of applying include the VA and the FHA.
Both the VA, or Veteran’s Administration, and the FHA, or Federal Housing Authority, will provide 100% financing loans, but at a price. Since these loans require no down payment, they are a higher risk investment, and as such are subject to higher interest rates.
These loans, however, do not represent the total of available options. There are, in fact, many more possibilities, your choice of which will depend completely on how good or terrible your credit is.
1.) No income verification loans are exactly what the title says the borrower must have good credit, but need not have any verifiable income. 2.)Imperfect credit loans offer competitive interest rates to borrowers with imperfect credit. This kind of loan can also consolidate debts or make home improvements. 3.)Pre-approval programs can be applied for before house-hunting begins, and will provide you with conditional approval and an estimate of what you can afford. 4.)First time homebuyer programs are for those with a short credit history and not a lot of money. 5.)New construction loans allow the borrower to lock in their interest rate and keep it that way after they move, regardless of how rates change. This, however, can be a disadvantage if interest rates go down, since you’ll end up paying the higher interest.
Graham McKenzie is the content coordinator for a leading South African leading Homeloan and Bond Origination portal which provides access to FNB Homeloan.