Now is the Time to Buy or Refinance Your Home-Mortgage and Credit Tips
Start planning now.
I met Mike less than 5 years ago. He was delinquent in his property taxes, state taxes, and federal taxes. He had credit card debt that was seriously delinquent. I owned a Mobile Home in a park and so did he. I had a lot of credit card debt.
Within a year I was able to help him clear up his tax delinquencies and credit card delinquencies. I sold my Mobile Home (making enough profit to get back what I invested) and moved into his. We started making some improvements to his mobile home and paying off my credit card debt. For under a thousand dollars we had new carpet put in the Master bedroom and laminate floor in the living room and kitchen. In 3 yrs we saved over 10,000 dollars sold his mobile home for a profit and bought a new home with a low 7% rate. We have improved his credit score tremendously.
Tips to increasing your chances of getting a mortgage and bettering your credit score.
1. If you are planning to buy a home in the near future do not take out any new loans or credit cards especially a car loan. If you have a car loan with a high interest rate you can refinance with another lender to lower you monthly payments and get a better rate.
2. Check your credit report and correct any discrepancies.
3. If you are delinquent in taxes or credit card companies you may be able to make a deal to pay them off for less than they say you owe.
4. Consolidate credit cards and car loans to lower your interest and finance charges.
5. Pay off small loans and get any balances to zero that you can. Once debts are consolidated pay a little more than minimum on your credit cards each month.
Prioritize your monthly bills.
– bills with late payment fees
– bills with higher finance charges
– monthly rent or mortgage
You want to pay these first. Your telephone bill, electric bill, cable, medical, fuel are important but only pay if you have enough to pay your priority bills first. If you are a month or so late on a phone ore electric bill it won’t effect your credit score. Pay them only what you can afford and not have them turned off. Always pay in full if you can cause letting them get to high will make it harder to pay in future months but make sure you have enough for your priority bills. Do the same with doctor bills.
If you currently have a mortgage that has a high interest rate or you are having trouble paying you may want to consider refinancing.
You can also use equity in your home to pay off any debt that has high interest rates. Only do this if your really need to because by consolidating this type of debt you will be paying for it for the next 15-30 yrs. First search other options for lowering car payments and credit cards by refinancing your through a bank or other financing company to get a lower rate.
If you want to refinance and need to Build Equity in your Home here are some affordable Home Improvement Tips that are inexpensive:
Paint
Painting the walls and ceilings of the major rooms (living room, master bedroom, and kitchen). Watch for sales on paint. Home Depot often has sales $5 off a gallon. They also have an Oops counter where a clerk may have made an error when making paint for someone and they didn’t want it. You can buy a gallon of Paint for 5 dollars. Sometimes you can take a few gallons or a quart and mix colors together to get a better color or if the color is too dark for your liking add some white to it to lighten it or another light color.
Flooring
Watch for specials you can get some inexpensive flooring. Home Depot runs specials with their credit cards that give you no payments no interest for a year. Around here you can have 3 rooms carpeted for price of carpet and $199 for the install.
Outdoor Landscaping and Decor
1. Create a small garden or plant some bushes
2. Add some landscape lighting
3. wash the exterior of the home
4. Paint the house or just the trim
There are a lot of homes available for sale now and you can get your home at a much lower price at a much better rate. Prepare now and you can really be ahead of the game in just a few years. Investing in real estate now will help you profit in the future.