Fort Jackson Relocation

First of a series of articles explaining the home buying process for military personnel interested in purchasing a home now or in the future. Discussion will include:(1) the 16 steps involved from mortgage qualification to submitting an offer to purchase;(2) how to determine if I should consider buying a home at this time;(3)how much will I pay for a house; and (4) the all important question-how much will it cost.
The “Field Manual For Military Home Buyers”addresses all of these topics in detail. Obtain your copy of this 33 page manual at dukerr@usit.net

*Pay your bills on time
*Keep credit card balances low
*Get current on any late payments
*Order credit reports atwww.annualcreditreport.com.
*Obtain your credit score
*Reduce your debt
*Don’t open new accounts
*Avoid closing credit card accounts
Credit reporting agencies are Experian, Equifax and TransUnion. Caution: some companies use the offer of a free credit report to sell credit monitoring or other services.

It takes a 620 credit score to qualify for a “VA” mortgage. How does a lender come up with this score? The scores are based on information in your credit report.These scores tell lenders the likelihood that a mortgage or any other loan for that matter will be repaid on time. Te credit score is determined by examining your credit report and assigning numerical values to pieces of information in that report. Fair Issac runs the scoring known as FICO.

Five categories of information are evaluated to obtain your score:(1) payment history(35%); (2) amounts owed(30%); (3) length of credit history(15%); (4) new debt(10%) and types of credit (10%). See www.fairisaac.com

The three major credit companies generate a credit score. Each company works with he same data but generates the score in a different manner. Scores range between 300 and 850. Half of all consumers have a credit of 720-740 or higher. Lenders will give the best interest rate to people with a FICO score of 760 or higher. If your score is 650 to 690 you can get credit but at less favorable rates than borrowers with higher scores. Once you fall below 600 its nearly impossible to get a loan.

Your actual credit score is not included with your credit report(free at www.annualcreditreport.com).You can order your credit score at www.myfico.com. Cost is $19.95. Note; the rules regarding  providing credit score information to consumers is changing as a result of the implementation of the Dodd-Frank act.