Ten Things NOT to Do When Buying a Home

Ten Things NOT to Do When Buying a Home

DON’T Acquire more debt. Don’t use your credit cards for big purchases, don’t apply for new credit cards, and restrain yourself from buying that new car. Buying items like furniture or that new car can find you without a house or garage to put them in.
DON’T Change or quit your job. If there is any reason why your job situation will be changing, run it by your lender first. It will usually be fine with the lender if you stay within the same industry and have a good work history, but it’s important to keep the lines of communication open with your lender.
DON’T Pay off debt. Always run this by your lender first because paying off all debt could actually hurt your credit score rather than help it. For example, one lender suggested to a client that they pay a credit card down to $50 because it helped the client’s score more than paying it completely off.
DON’T Hide money in a “mattress” somewhere. Avoid making large cash deposits to a checking or savings account. Lenders need to have a paper trail available unless the money has been in an account for longer than two months.
DON’T Let things go to collections. If your lender has to check your credit again, any new collections account can have a devastating affect on your credit score.
DON’T Consolidate debt. Consolidation is viewed very much the same as collections on your credit report which equals negative numbers!
DON’T Let anyone else run your credit. See #1 for examples of how and why other people may be running your credit—don’t do it.
DON’T Shop mortgages with multiple lenders or banks. Try to limit your choice of lender shopping to a few lenders and do this within a two week period.
DON’T Overextend yourself on your budget. Just because your lender says that you can borrow up to a certain amount of money doesn’t mean you need to spend the entire dollar amount. Leave breathing room within your budget for emergencies and the like.
DON’T Over upgrade when building a new build. This is when it’s extremely important (and nice!) to have a Realtor with you during your build process. An experienced agent will know which upgrades do or don’t pay off in the long run, as well as which upgrades should be performed by the builder versus a project done after move-in.