Today I wanted to talk about what you should not do when buying a home. You may already know some of what you should do, but that’s not everything you need to be aware of.

 

Don’t open new lines of credit. Outside of applying for the mortgage on the home, each time you have the credit pulled, it leads to a potential change in your score. This can disrupt or slow down the mortgage process.

 

Make sure you have a paper trail to your money. A lot of issues are caused by not knowing where the money comes from. You might have had it gifted to you or had it put away in a safety deposit box. Lenders need to know where the money is coming from to know that you have the ability to repay the loan eventually, so not having a paper trail can slow down a transaction.

 

Don’t miss payments. It’s really easy to get distracted during the home-buying process and miss a payment. Lenders will double-check your credit at closing, and any late payments can affect your score. It’s important to make sure that your score does not change at all during this process or it could mean trouble.

Don’t change jobs. A lot of times we will see this happen very close to a close. The issue with this is it shows a gap in employment which can easily put that loan at risk. So if you’re about to retire or you get an amazing job opportunity, try and wait till after the close.

 

I hope this gives you a good idea of what you can do to make sure there aren’t any hiccups when buying your new home. If you have questions about buying or anything else, please reach out to us. We'd also like to help you if you have a property you’d like to sell. We look forward to hearing from you soon.