Tips for First Time Home Buyer
Shopping for a mortgage can be intimidating. It’s natural to feel anxious about doing something new for the first time, and getting your first mortgage is no exception.
Fortunately, there are a few simple things you can do to make sure you’re being well-prepared before you start looking for your first home loan. Here are four tips to help first-time mortgage borrowers.:
1. Lock Your Interest Rate. Interest rates on mortgages can increase or decrease from day to day or even hour to hour. Discuss the interest rate outlook with your loan officer and try to learn as much as you can about how ups and downs in interest rate quotes might affect your mortgage payment and your ability to qualify for that loan. To protect yourself from interest rate rises, ask about a rate lock, which can reserve a specific interest rate for you for a set time period. If you decide to lock your rate, make sure your lock period won’t expire before your closing date. Since weeks, and sometimes months, can go by between having your offer accepted and closing on your new home, it’s a good idea to lock in your interest rate and points.
What is a rate lock?
A lock is a commitment by the lender that guarantees you a certain interest rate for a specific period of time. For example, your lender might offer you a 6 percent interest rate for zero points for thirty days, or 6. 25 percent rate for forty-five days for one point. Since weeks, and sometimes months, can go by between having your offer accepted and closing on your new home, it’s a good idea to lock in your interest rate and points.
Time period
The most common amount of time for a lock is 30 days. However, locks come in fifteen day increments and you can get a lock for 15, 30, 45 or 60 days. Some lenders even let you lock past sixty days. It is good to remember, though, that the shorter the lock period, typically the lower the rate will be. The longer the lock period, the greater the risk to the lender that rates will change, and not necessarily in the lender’s favor. That’s why lenders usually charge more for a longer time period with a lock.
Locking into rates and points means that your lender commits to giving you a specified interest rate for a specified period of time. If you don’t lock into rates and points, you risk your mortgage costing you more than it needs to, so be sure that you are clear about what you lock into and for how long.
2. Consider FHA. If you’re a first-time home buyer, you might want to shop for an “FHA loan,” which is a mortgage that’s insured by the Federal Housing Administration (FHA). FHA loans offer competitive interest rates, allow smaller down payments and have easier qualification guidelines compared with other types of loans. The minimum down payment for an FHA loan is just 3.5 percent of the purchase price of the home, although FHA loans do require that you pay mortgage insurance.
3. Educate Yourself. A plain-vanilla 30-year or 15-year fixed-rate mortgage is fairly easy to understand. But other types of loans can be more complicated. If you want to consider an adjustable-rate mortgage (ARM) or other less common type of loan product, do your homework and make sure you fully understand how your loan works before you sign the loan documents.
4. Shop Around. Interest rates, loan products and loan terms vary among lenders. That means all borrowers, whether novice or not, should shop around for loan offers. Ask about the benefits and risks of each loan and be sure to compare the quoted points and estimated closing costs as well as the interest rates on different loans before you decide which would best fit your personal situation.
