Mortgage advice: Best advice and the best rates

Mortgage advice for renters that are first time buyers, are to compare your expenses. The best mortgage advice you will hear is to check your credit rating for errors before you apply for a mortgage. We'll discuss this more below.

If you are a searching for mortgage advice and presently renting, it's easy to calculate your cost - simply, the monthly rent you pay. (Utilities, phone, cable, and other costs can be ignored in this comparison because they'll be approximately the same whether you rent or buy. 

But calculating the cost of homeownership is much more complicated, because income tax considerations affect your bottom line. And there is, in addition, the uncertainty about how much the value of your home will rise or fall in the coming years. As a tenant, you may be taking a standard deduction on your income tax return. This is the time to judge how that standard deduction stacks up against the amount you'd be able to subtract from income if, like most homeowners, you itemized deductions instead.

Most realty agents recommend as mortgage advice, getting preliminary approval for a loan, usually by getting pre-qualified or pre-approval for a certain monthly payment. Getting approved for a loan requires having a lender verify your financial situation, including your current assets (income, savings, investments and other sources of revenue) and your liabilities (existing loans, credit card balances and other obligations). Using this information, the lender will evaluate whether there are sufficient funds for the down payment, whether you have adequate income to make monthly payments, and your overall credit-worthiness, which is based on a review of your borrowing history. According to many lenders, the biggest reason people get turned down for a loan is poor credit. Reviewing your credit status and correcting any mistakes before applying for a mortgage is always good mortgage advice.

One final bit of mortgage advice; now that you know what your credit history is and what you can afford to borrow, shop around. Get loan quotes from at least three different sources. Create a worksheet to compare the interest rate, points and fees from one lender to another.