Applying for a mortgage loan is quite an important step for
many people. However, many are quite adamant about actually applying for the
mortgage loan simply because people are not sure what they need to qualify for
one. The qualifications of a mortgage loan are actually not that complicated.
Here are some of the general guidelines of how you can
qualify for a mortgage loan:
1. If you have filed for bankruptcy, you should wait for at
least 2 years since your final discharge date.
2. If you have had an foreclosures, there should have been
at least 3 years since the foreclosure had been finalized.
3. You should have had no late payments with your previous
credits for at least one year (12 months). But if you have had a great credit
record for several years and you had some little occasions of late payment,
your application might still be considered. Usually, lenders watch out for late
payments that are 30 days behind or more.
4. Your rental payment history might also be checked. You
should have punctual payments for at least, the last 2 years to prove that you
pay on time.
5. Usually you might get disqualified for a mortgage loan if
the government has guaranteed your student loan to be default. However, there
are cases the disqualification may be lifted provided that you have
renegotiated your repayment schedule for the loan and you have made punctual
payments again for the past year.
6. All of your account that is in a collection status should
be repaid prior to the application for the mortgage loan.
7. Judgments ordered by the court should already have been
paid in full. Those cases that involve child support should have payments that
are current and caught up.
8. If you are self-employed or your income is based on
commission, you would usually need to have been receiving a steady income from
that source for at least two years in such a way that the lender would be able
to account for your average income. There may be some exempted cases, however.
9. Lenders would usually only account for bonus or overtime
pay as part of the “qualifying” source of income if you have had a history of
bonus or overtime pay from your present employer for at least a year or two.
Your employer should verify how much overtime hours you have served or how much
bonus income you would be getting for such sources of income to be considered.
10. If you have two jobs, your secondary income may usually
be counted as part of the qualifying income when you have had a continued
history of earning from both jobs in the past two years, otherwise, only one
job may be included in the qualifying income.
11. If you have been receiving income through child support,
you should have been receiving income consistently. You would be required to
submit a history of the payments made for the child support. Usually, if your
child support status has just been awarded recently, it might not be considered
as a qualifying source of income.
12. If you are currently being sued, or if you are currently
involved in any legal matter such as an ongoing divorce suit, you might have to
wait until the lawsuit becomes settled before you could apply for a mortgage
loan.
What is the point of these qualifications?
Lenders carefully scrutinize your qualifications in order to
ascertain how much the maximum amount of money you could afford to pay them
ever month. They do so by fitting your information into certain formulas that
give fairly accurate predictions. Should these predictions prove that you can
afford to pay the monthly dues that will be stipulated by the loan, you are
most likely to be granted the mortgage loan.
The importance of having a clean or at least a decent record
cannot be over stressed when it comes to getting a mortgage loan. However, if
you have had some small stains in your record, lenders provide considerations
such as specified above. Knowing these, you can pretty much estimate if you
would be able to qualify for a mortgage loan or not.