re: Mortgage qualification

OP, don't listen to anyone in this thread about their suggestions.

Before you make a move, call a mortgage professional and ask them to pre-qualify you. You'll be giving them permission to pull your credit and you'll need to provide them documentation about your income, confirm your residency/addresses over the past two years or so and a few other pieces of info.

I suggest reaching out to a mortgage broker in order to have this conversation and get these questions answered. A mortgage broker may work for a company, but has access to an array of different lenders and can use the single credit pull and match you up to the best value for your money.

Someone working for an in-house mortgage company or a bank is going to prefer you to be a, "cookie cutter," type of loan that fits their exact requirements and guidelines. This means that if you make moves with your trade lines (credit cards, car notes, etc) that it may work well for their product or mortgage. But if you want to see if that's the best deal for your money out there, the hoops you jumped through for them may not apply to everyone.

A broker will give you solid advice on how to put your credit into the best position possible to qualify for the best deal you can get. Once they've taken their initial application, confirmed your income and credit, they'll come back to you with a basic pre-qualification that tells you how much home you can afford, some general ideas about an interest rate and even more general-if not outright rough-ideas about payments and house-notes based on what loan amounts you tell them you're comfortable with.

They may also come back with frank advice about how to pay off trade lines like a car note or credit cards that will put you into a better position financially or credit-wise (read: increase your credit scores). You may not be ready-immediately-for the range of home you can finance because your rate's a little higher than what you want because you've got some work to do on your credit.

Once you've got their prequalification letter from the broker, you can bring that with you to find a realtor and present that info to them. From there, it's a matter of finding a house you like in the range you're financially comfortable with.

Don't make a move on anything until you talk to a professional who helps people with mortgage financing FIRST...and do not find a realtor first. They're oftentimes going to steer you to a person they have a relationship with on a referral basis. This person may not always be the best person for your mortgage. They are probably always the person who sends the realtor the most business however.

That's not always a good deal for you as a borrower and home-hunter.

Good luck, bro!