This is a good time to be a home buyer if you have good credit. Hopefully, your credit card payments, your student loan and your car payments have been made on time and you are up to date in these important financial areas. If you have no blemishes on your credit report, you are in a great position to buy a house.

Gone is the time when you will be competing with other buyers for the home of your dreams as buyers no longer have to offer sellers more than their asking price. The pool of qualified buyers is much smaller than last year at this time and you are now in a position to ask the seller for incentives (such as help with closing costs) if you decide to purchase his home.

No matter what the economic climate, it is always important to connect with the right real estate agent. Paulieshouse.com has a good reputation and many years of experience in the industry. We can be relied upon to work hard to help you locate the type of property you are seeking with the amenities you desire in a home. We can assist you in negotiating a fair and realistic price when you find the home you wish to purchase and can also help you locate adequate funding sources.

Contact us at TylerLeeWilliams.com for a free consultation about the type of house you want to buy. After you inform us of the number of rooms, the approximate size of the property and your price range, we will enter this information in our Multiple Listing Service (MLS) data base and show you a print-out of the homes that match your needs.

If you have not already been pre-qualified, you should contact your lending institution to do so. This is a simple but important first step in the process of obtaining a mortgage. Your loan officer will take a general look at your income and expenses pertaining to a debt-to-income ratio. However, this is a financial overview and he or she does not do an actual analysis of your credit report or your ability to purchase a home.

In order to determine how much house you can actually afford, you need to be pre-approved by your bank. The loan officer does an in-depth analysis of your financial situation and the result will be the amount that the lender feels you will be able to realistically afford. For instance, if you are pre-approved for $275, 000, this is the maximum amount of the loan that the lender will approve.

However, it is not advisable to buy a home up to your limit amount as you will most likely need some money for upgrades in your new home. You might want to make some decorating changes, buy additional furniture, upgrade kitchen appliances or spruce up the garden. With a pre-approval of $275,000, it would therefore be prudent to purchase a home in the $240,000 to $250,000 price range.

Contact Tyler today so that I can assist you in finding the home of your dreams.