But how does one obtain a low rate on a mortgage loan and, for that matter, why is it important in the first place? These are the subjects we will discuss in this tutorial for first-time home buyers.

How Your Credit Score Relates

When you apply for a home loan, you be sure that the lender will request your credit reports and scores from all three of the reporting companies (Experian, Equifax and TransUnion). Lenders also reserve the best rates for borrowers who fall into a certain credit category.

What score you need to qualify for this category will vary from one lender to another, but it’s safe to say that the better (higher) your credit score, the lower the mortgage rate you’ll receive. This in turn translates into a lower payment each month, which is the whole point to all of this.

Here’s something not many home buyers realize. Over the last few years, the score needed to qualify for the best rates on a loan has risen. This is largely due to tougher restrictions on lending institutions (as a result of the subprime loan crisis of 2007 - 2008).

In fact, I saw Jean Chatzky (financial editor for the Today Show) on TV not long ago, talking about this very subject. She said that in May of 2008, borrowers needed a score of at least 620 to qualify for the best rates. By May 2008, however, that requirement had increased to 760 … an increase of 140 points! Today, in 2010, those higher standards are still in effect.

How You Can Improve Your Score

This is a good time to introduce you to another acronym related to home loans, a term you’ve probably heard before on television. The acronym if FICO (pronounced fie-coh). It stands for Fair Isaac Corporation. This is the company that created the scoring model that is used today. Basically, it’s a computerized scoring model that turns your financial history into a numerical score between 300 and 850 (with higher being better).

So with all things being equal, a higher FICO number means that you’ll be offered a better rate on your loan. That’s because a higher number tells lenders you know how to manage your finances, and that you’re responsible when it comes to paying bills.

You can maintain a good score by paying all of your bills on time. This includes credit card balances, car payments, rent, utilities, etc. It also helps to reduce your overall debt, starting with those credit cards. These are the keys to being a successful home buyer in the new economy.

But these loans also get a lot of homeowners into trouble each year, and in the worst-case scenarios they can even result in foreclosure and loss of the home. On top of that, there are some common scams associated with equity loans and lines of credit. The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is constantly tracking the latest scams and warning homeowners about them. Here’s a summary of some of the more common scenarios you should watch out for…

1. Equity Stripping

In this scenario, the lender will actually help you “pad” your stated income on the loan application form in order to qualify you for the loan. “Why would they do such a thing?” you might ask. Predatory lenders use this tactic because they don’t care about your actual ability to make the payments — they will simply foreclose on your house and benefit from the equity you’ve built up over the years.

If your income is outside of certain parameters, but the lender says “we can make that work,” you should already be on your guard. That’s red flag #1. If they try to persuade you that you can make payments that seem out of reach, you have another warning sign. You’re the only person who should be making decisions about your ability to pay back a loan!

2. The Helpful Contractor Scam

This scenario usually starts with a home improvement contractor (such as a roofer) who knocks on the door of homeowners to offer their services. Many of the homeowners will say, “Sorry, but that kind of project is not in our budget right now.” The contractor will counter this by saying he works with a lender who can help offset the cost. Long story short — the homeowner signs some papers that turn out to be a home equity loan.

This scam is not as common as it once was. But it still happens on a regular basis all across America, so it’s worth mentioning in our list. Unfortunately, as with many scams, the elderly are often the target with this approach.

The first thing you need to realize is that a reputable contractor will rarely practice door-to-door marketing. That’s the first red flag. Additionally, a contractor should never refer you to a third-party lender — it’s a conflict of interest. That’s the second red flag.

3. Loan “Stacking” or Flipping

I refer to this scam as “loan stacking,” because that’s what takes place. The more common term for it is “loan flipping.” Regardless of what you call it, the scenario goes like this. The lender will offer the homeowner a second equity loan after the homeowner has already received a first one (and made a few payments on it). Basically, the lender refinances the initial loan to grant the homeowner additional money.

In some cases, this will happen more than once. And with each new round of financing, the rates typically get higher and the fees larger. The borrower now has even more money to use for whatever prompted the first equity loan — but they also have a lot more debt spread out over a longer period of time. Homeowners who fall prey to this scam often get in over their heads with all the fees that stack up on them. It’s a good way to lose your home.

There Are Some Trustworthy Lenders

I don’t mean to scare you away from the equity loan as a source of financing. On the contrary, it can be a useful tool for a responsible borrower, and there are plenty of reputable lenders that will offer you fair terms and treatment. I’m simply trying to warn you about the common scams that go along with these types of loans.

My advice is to use a lender you’ve heard of before, a company who has been around for a long time and has a reputation at stake. Be a smart consumer when pursuing such a program. Do plenty of research and let common sense guide you.

This article offers a solid introduction to the world of homeowners insurance. We will cover several key concepts you need to understand before you start shopping for insurance.

Here are five important things you need to know:

1. Understanding Premiums and Deductibles

Here are two key definitions you should know, before we go any further: The home insurance premium is the amount you pay for the policy. The deductible is what you’ll have to pay if you ever make a claim against the policy, before the insurance company will pay the rest. If you can keep these two definitions in mind, everything else will make more sense. Let’s move on to discuss the relationship between these two things.

2. Raising the Deductible Can Lower the Premium

Premiums and deductibles generally have an inverse relationship. This means you can lower your premium (the amount you pay every year) by raising your deductible. A lot of financial experts recommend this very strategy, as way of lowing the overall cost of insurance.

According to the Insurance Information Institute: “If you can afford to raise your deductible to $1,000 [as compared to the standard $500 deductible], you may save as much as 25 percent.”

3. There are Other Ways to Control Costs

So how much does a homeowners insurance policy cost, anyway? In the United States, the average policy costs about $800 per year. This is just for the premium, which is the amount you pay year after year. Deductibles vary from one policy to another, and they can be raised or lowered by the insured party.

You can lower the cost of coverage by increasing your deductible amount (mentioned earlier), by shopping around for competing offers, and by getting a multi-policy discount from your current insurance company.

4. Replacement Cost is Better Than Cash Value

When you choose a home insurance policy, you will probably be asked to choose between replacement cost and actual cash value (as they pertain to your belongings). Replacement cost offers more protection, because it will replace the items you have lost with comparable items — even if they are worth more today than when you bought them.

Take a big-screen television, for example. If you lose a model that’s ten years old, it’s possible that a newer but comparable model will cost hundreds more than what you paid for your older model. Replacement-cost coverage will pay the higher amount. Cash-value coverage will only give you what you paid, ten years ago.

5. Flood Protection is Extra

Did you know that most homeowners policies do NOT offer flood protection? It’s true. So if you live in an area where there’s a reasonable risk of flooding, you should get a separate policy or a “rider” for flood coverage. You can learn more from the federal government’s website at FloodSmart.gov.

These are the most important concepts to keep in mind when shopping for homeowners insurance. Obviously, there is more to the picture than what is discussed in this article. But if you keep these concepts in mind, you’ll have a much easier time choosing a policy.

It’s important to check your FICO score early on in the home-buying process, because it takes time to improve a low score. While you’re entitled to a free credit report per year, you’ll have to pay a small fee for the credit score. They are two different things. You can purchase your score from MyFICO.com — this is the company that actually designed the FICO scoring model.

But what if you check your score and find out that it’s low? You could qualify for certain types of loans with a score in 600 range, but you’ll be much better off in the mid- to upper-700 range. The question now becomes: How do I Improve my score? And that brings us to the purpose of this article.

5 Good Sources of Credit Information

Here are five websites worth visiting, if you want to learn more about your credit reports and scores:

1. www.myfico.com — We touched on this website earlier. This site is owned by the Fair Isaac Corporation, the company that created the credit-scoring model used by most lenders. They have plenty of educational articles, as well as a forum where you can post questions. It’s well worth a visit.
2. www.homebuyinginstitute.com/credit.php — On this page, you’ll find a collection of more than 100 articles relating to consumer credit. This collection was compiled over a two-year period, as readers sent in their questions. If you have a question about credit reports and scores, you’ll find the answer on this site.
3. www.annualcreditreport.com — This website is jointly owned by the three credit-reporting companies (TransUnion, Equifax and Experian). This is where you should go to request your free reports. This is the only site that is regulated by the Federal Trade Commission.
4. www.ftc.gov/freereports — Why do so many people offer “free” credit reports, and then try to charge you for stuff? It’s a marketing strategy referred to as bundling, and you can learn the truth about it on this website.
5. www.bankrate.com — This site is a treasure trove of helpful advice. In addition to credit tips, it explains the mortgage process in great detail. Start with a keyword search, or click on the “news and advice” link.

Research is the first step to home-buying success. The five resources listed above will help you get started on the right foot.

Here are five of the most important things to keep in mind when you start shopping for a mortgage loan — an even long before that.

1. Mortgage lenders will check your score.

When you apply for a home loan, you can be certain that the mortgage lender will review your credit score — among other financial factors. It’s not the only thing that will determine their decision, but it is one of the top factors of the mortgage-approval process.

If your score is low, you won’t even get your foot in the door. You will be rejected right from the start, or you’ll have a much harder time finding a willing lender. If your score is high, you will have more options and better interest rates available to you.

2. Your score partly determines the interest rate.

The interest rate is one of the components that will make up your monthly mortgage payment. Obviously, the principal amount you borrow is the largest factor that determines your monthly payment. But the interest rate plays a major role as well.

If you have a high credit score, you are more likely to get a low rate on your home loan. This in turn will reduce the amount you have to pay each month toward the mortgage. On the contrary, a bad score generally means a higher interest rate — and therefore a higher monthly payment as well. How much higher, you ask? That’s our next point.

3. A good score can save you thousands of dollars.

The difference between a good and bad credit score can greatly affect the interest rate you receive from the lender. It could be the difference, for example, between a rate of 5.5% and 7.2%. These may seem like small numbers on the surface, but when you apply them to something as large as a mortgage loan, we are talking about thousands of dollars over the life of the loan.

4. Your score comes from your own actions.

Credit scores are not arbitrarily assigned to consumers. Your score comes from the information contained within your credit reports. You have three of these reports by the way — one for each of the consumer credit-reporting bureaus.

So where does the information within your credit reports come from? It comes from your own personal actions, your financial history, and your previous use of credit. In other words, it’s a snapshot of how well (or how poorly) you have managed your credit in the past. Good behavior creates a good score, and bad behavior has the reverse effect. It doesn’t come out of thin air — it comes from your own actions.

5. There are no mysteries to improving a credit score.

There are a lot of companies out there who would like you to think that it takes some kind of special knowledge to improve a credit score. These companies make money from people who don’t realize they can handle it for themselves. So let’s set the record straight right here and now. You are the only person who can improve your credit score, and you can do it without paying any other company for assistance.

Pay all of your bills on time, maintain low balances on your credit card accounts, and use credit sparingly. These three things alone can help you earn and sustain a good score for years to come. And there’s no certainly mystery in that!

For a long time, there has been a predatory side of the credit industry as well. In particular, I’m talking about credit repair companies and the bold (and often false) promises they make.

You Can Fix Your Own Credit Reports

Let me start with the absolute truth at the core of my argument. There is no company on the planet that has special powers over your credit report. The only thing these “repair” companies can do is help you make corrections to your credit report, which is something you can easily do for yourself. In fact, there are hundreds of articles online (from reputable sources) that can help you make such corrections. And you can do it for free — without spending a dime on anything.

Credit Repair Scams Tracked by the FTC

A lot of the so-called credit repair companies will make bold promises about what they can do, and they will make it seem as if they have special access to the reporting bureaus. This is simply not the case. How do I know this? Because the FTC investigates more complaints against this industry than just about any other industry. Visit the FTC website and do a search for credit repair, and you’ll quickly see what I mean.

My best advice is to scratch the word “repair” from your credit dictionary, and replace it with the word “counseling.” Better yet, replace it with the phrase nonprofit counseling, because there are plenty of these services available all over the United States. A nonprofit credit counselor will help you make corrections to your credit report and otherwise improve your financial situation, and they will do it for little or no cost.

A credit repair company, on the other hand, will generally ask for upfront fees because they know they cannot deliver on their bold promises. Consider yourself warned and educated on this dirty little secret of the credit industry.

But did you know that most of the offers for the so-called free reports are actually lures to sell other products? It’s true, and that’s the subject of this eye-opening article — the latest installment of our dirty little secrets of the credit industry.

Free Credit Reports Online - The Real Source

Let me start with the most important premise of this article, and then we can build from there. By law, you are entitled to one free credit report per year, from all three of the reporting agencies (Experian, TransUnion, Equifax). When I refer to “laws” in this context, I am talking about the Fair Credit Reporting Act. This is a federal law enforced by the Federal Trade Commission, and it regulates everything related to credit reports and reporting.

But there is only one official website that’s mandated and regulated by the FTC, and that is where I recommend you go to get your free credit reports online. That website is AnnualCreditReport.com.

So what is the fishing bait I mentioned in the title of this article, and what does it have to do with free credit reports online? Well, a lot of companies offer your free reports through their websites — but only when you sign up for some kind of credit monitoring or identity-theft prevention service. So while there is only one official website where you can get your free reports, there are literally thousands of other sites that offer freebies in conjunction with some kind of monthly service.

I’m not saying these monthly services are bogus. On the contrary, some of them do offer a good level of protection against credit fraud and identity theft. All I’m saying is that you can get your free credit reports from all three bureaus once a year, without signing up for anything at all. It’s required by law, and you can do it through the website I mentioned earlier in this article.

Are you planning to buy your first home in the near future? If so, you should reading up on homeowners insurance as well. Your mortgage lender will require you to have a home insurance policy prior to closing day. In fact, you’ll probably have to bring the policy with you when you close on the home.

This is one of the many things a first-time home buyer should know about homeowners insurance. Here are ten more things you should know…

What to Know About Homeowners Insurance

Getting a homeowners insurance policy is harder today than it was a few years ago. Our economic recession has had a lot to do with this. Everything is harder to get these days — mortgage loans, car loans, insurance coverage, etc. So you may have to shop around to get the kind of coverage you want, and you should definitely get multiple quotes to compare the cost from one provider to the next.

A couple of definitions you should know: The homeowners insurance premium is the amount you pay for coverage. The deductible is what you will pay in the event of a claim, before the insurance company will pay the rest.

Premiums and deductibles generally have an inverse relationship. That is, you can lower your premium by raising your deductible. This is a strategy recommended by many in the finance industry. The Insurance Information Institute says that “If you can afford to raise your deductible to $1,000, you may save as much as 25 percent [on your premiums].”

In the U.S., the average cost of a homeowners insurance policy is around $800 per year. This is for the premium. The deductible varies from one policy to another and can be raised or lowered by the homeowner.

Most homeowners insurance policies do not cover floods. So if you live in an area that’s prone to flooding, you should get a separate policy (or an add-on) for flood insurance. Visit Floodsmart.gov to learn more about this kind of coverage.

When choosing a policy, you will probably have to choose between replacement cost and actual cash value. These terms relate to the contents of your home, but they are two different things. Replacement cost coverage gives you more protection than cash value, because it covers the cost of replacing items even if they cost more than when you bought them (appreciation). Cash value only covers items up to the amount you paid.

You can get quotes for a homeowners insurance policy online, which will save you plenty of time and energy. This is also a great way to compare policies of multiple insurance companies at once.

Learn the Basics and Shop Wisely

These are the basics of homeowners insurance policies. There is certainly more to know about this subject, but the information presented above will give you a good foundation of knowledge. To continue your research, you might want to visit one (or more) of the following websites:

• www.insureme.com
• www.iii.org
• www.homebuyinginstitute.com
• www.farmers.com

I hope this article helps you understand the basics of home insurance, and I wish you well in your home buying process. Good luck!

So, what is the best way to begin your quest for a new home? In truth, any way you begin the process is a good way, because the most important thing is to get started. After all, you will learn a lot as you go. But there are some things to keep in mind:

Do the Proper Research

Buying real estate can be an overwhelming experience for the first-time buyer. But you can make the process much easier simply by understanding it. Start with the lingo. By learning the terminology associated with home buying and mortgage, you will make smarter decisions along the way.

Set Your Budget

The best way to begin looking for a home is to first sit down with a mortgage lender to determine how a high a mortgage you can afford and be approved for. Remember, there is a difference between the loan amount you can be approved for and the amount you can actually afford. So in the end, only you can determine your home buying budget — not a mortgage lender.

When dealing with a mortgage lender you will want to provide him or her with an understanding of what mortgage payment you are comfortable making so they can give you a sense of the size of the mortgage that equates to, based on your credit, income and other factors.

Taking this step first will help “frame” your home search so you are only looking at homes within your budget range. Many first time homebuyers fail to take this step and therefore waste time and energy looking at homes that are well above their budget.

You can find plenty of websites that offer mortgage calculators, and these tools are a good place to start when determining your budget. Just keep in mind that the one variable you can never predict in advance is the interest rate. Only by speaking to a lender can you get a full mortgage quote that includes the interest rate (based on your credit history).

Get Pre-Approved for a Mortgage

Another reason you may wish to start with speaking to a mortgage lender is so you can be prepared to show a pre-approval letter to the seller. This gives them the confidence that you can buy their home, which is especially important for homes where more than one buyer makes an offer (i.e. a seller’s market). Do not confuse pre-qualification with pre-approval. Pre-qual is an informal process in which the lender tells you how much of a mortgage you might qualify for. Pre-approval, on the other hand, is a more formal review of your finances and is likely to reflect the actual loan amount the lenders extends to you. In other words, the person selling the home will pay more attention to the pre-approval letter.

Though there is no wrong way to begin a search for a new home, meeting with a mortgage lender first may be the best way to begin your search and find your dream home. Just remember to always keep an open mind when visiting each property and envision the possibilities. You must also stay realistic about your finances and do your best not to over-extend yourself by purchasing a home beyond your means.

This is a frequently asked question among people buying a home (especially first-time buyers), so it’s worth a thorough examination in this article. In fact, the first half of this question pertains to consumers in general, because everyone can benefit from knowing the “ingredients” that make up a credit score.

Let’s begin by discussing why credit is important for home buyers in the first place. When you apply for a mortgage loan in order to pay for a home, your mortgage lender will examine your financial history from several angles.

For one thing, the lender will review your debt-to-income ratio, which is a comparison between the amount of money you make each month and the amount you owe each month (car payment, credit card bills, other loans, etc.).

And, of course, the lender will also examine your credit scores. Note that I mentioned “scores” in the plural sense. Though most people don’t realize it, you actually have three credit scores, one for each of the credit-reporting companies (Experian, TransUnion and Equifax).

How Your Score is Created

Your credit score is derived from your credit reports, using a special scoring model developed by the Fair Isaac Corporation. You’ve probably heard the acronym “FICO” before? Well that’s what it stands for … Fair Isaac Corporation.

Your history of payments on things like credit cards and car loans is a major part of your credit score. In fact, past payment history is said to account for about 35% of your overall score. If you have a history of paying bills on time, this will help your score. On the other hand, if you miss payments on a regular basis the opposite will be true.

It only makes sense why this history would be important to mortgage lenders, but it shows how you’ve performed over the years in terms of paying back loans. This is extremely relevant to somebody who is considering loaning you money!

The total amount of debt you have is another big component of your credit score. For example, if you have a lot of debt (perhaps more than you can afford to pay off), then your score will reflect this. And it probably won’t help your cause when applying for a mortgage loan.

So with this in mind, two of the best things you can do to improve your score (if it needs improving) are paying all bills on time and minimizing your debt.