PREPARING TO MEET THE BANK.
Almost like meeting the future in-laws. Lots of polite but prying questions! Hahaha…
Before any bank will hand over the money – that is, give you a mortgage loan – the bank would want answers to some questions. And, you can count on these for sure:
- Do you have stable and regular income? You will need to provide proof of your income. For your meeting with the bank, take along your paystub, your last W2 and 2 years of income tax return.
- Who will be on the mortgage loan? If you and your spouse/partner intend to both be on the mortgage, make sure that BOTH your credit is good. If one of you have bad credit, it will pull down the amount of loan you can get – or cause your interest rate for the loan to be higher. But, if you both have great credit, it will improve your chance of getting a bigger loan – and lower interest rates.
- What debt obligations do you currently have? Remember the 36 percent rule in Part 1? Only 36 percent of your income (or joint income) can go toward your debt obligations. This is the debt-to-income ratio that banks look at to determine how much loan you can get. If you have a small debt remaining and you can easily pay it off, do it – this will then increase the amount of loan you can get.