What are Some First Time Home Buyer Qualifications?

One of the biggest steps a person can make in their life is buying a home. You finally get to have a place that is yours and you can do what you want with it. Decorate the inside and outside to your hearts content. While you consider the various prospects that would make the perfect home for you, you should also consider what the first time home buyer qualifications there are. It would be a shame to find that perfect home and then not qualify to buy it!



Below are a few basic first time home buyer qualifications you should meet:

1. Job History
   
   
2. Credit History
   
   
3. Credit Score
   
   
4. Rent History
   
   
5. Money saved for down payment
   
   

The specific qualifications vary from loan product to loan product. The five basic qualifications above you must meet before you can even start the loan process. Here is a breakdown of those five:



Job History



You must have at least two years at the same job to start the process of buying a home. If you change jobs during those two years, you should be able to show it was to improve your situation. For example, you may have been working at a convenience store while attending college and then obtained a job in your area of study. Don't have a lapse of time between jobs of more than two months. That would show you made a step-up in your work experience. Even going to school can be considered part of your job history.



Credit History



Have you been more than 30 days late on anything, any bankruptcies, judgements, etc.? Do you have at least four lines of credit that are at least 2 years old? These will have an impact on your first time home buyer qualifications so make sure you have a good credit history.



Credit Score



Today everything is based on credit score. So you might as well find out what your scores are. It is also a good idea to get to know what your middle score is since lenders loan money based on this. A middle score of 700 or above is excellent. Anything below 700 you need to work on especially in this market.



Rent History



Lenders want to see that you are paying your rent on time. If you have a mortgage, they will look at how timely are those payments as well. A very important first time home buyer qualifications are 12 months of rental payments made on time.



Money Saved for a Down Payment



Most first time home buyer qualifications will require 10-20% down for conventional loans. Although there are some that only require 3% down. So make sure you have some money saved or investigate grant or down payment assistance programs to help.



Once you have these first time home buyer qualifications in place, you're ready to go find that perfect home with confidence. You shouldn't have a problem meeting the individual loan products qualifications either.



Jeffrey Ragan wants to help first time home buyers learn more about the home buying process and other helpful information on their website, First-Time-Home-Buyer-Solutions.com