When you are planning to purchase a home for the first time or you are trying to refinance an already existing one, you must know the basics of how a home loan works. You must first know about the major factors that would determine whether you will be qualified for a home mortgage.
There are basically three major factors, commonly referred to as ICE, that will determine if a person will be qualified to apply for a home loan. These factors will also determine the type of mortgage that can be offered to a person planning to get a home mortgage.
INCOME. The I in ICE refers to income. A persons gross monthly income and total housing expenses are used to compute the Debt to Income ratio. This value states the ability of a person to pay his or her debts. The DTI is actually the percentage of a persons gross monthly income that can be used to pay his/her home mortgage. There are two main types of DTIs that are used to determine whether a person is qualified to be given a home loan. The first DTI is known as the Front-end ratio which indicates the amount or percentage of the persons income that will go towards the payment of the housing costs. The second DTI, the back-end ratio, indicates the percentage of the income that will go to paying all other recurring debts that the person has.
For you to qualify for a home mortgage, you must have a debt-to-income ratio rating of at least 28/36. Here, the value 28 indicates the front-end-ratio, whereas 36 is the back-end ratio. It means at least 28% of your income will be allocated for paying housing expenses while 36% is for paying all housing expenses as well as all other recurring expenses that you need to pay per month. The amount of home loan offered to you will be partially based on your DTI.
You can easily determine the amount of mortgage that you will be qualified to have by comparing your DTI value with the amortization payments computed through the use of a mortgage calculator.
CREDIT. Credit scores are used to determine what type of customer a person is. If a person has a bad credit score, this means that the person often misses regular payments and is then considered as a high risk investment. Banks and other lending institutions rely heavily on a persons credit score in determining a potential applicant for a home loan or any type of loan.
There are three major credit reporting agencies namely: Experian, Trans Union, and Equifax, which compute the credit score of a person, based on his/her financial activities. Banks make use of these agencies to determine factors such as a persons credit mix, credit balances and credit limits. Credit scores may range from 300 to 850. A person having a low credit rating may be denied a mortgage loan. However, banks may still give him a mortgage but one with high interest rates. On the other hand, a person with high credit score may qualify for a home mortgage loan with better interest rates.
EQUITY: Equity refers to the appraised value of your home minus the amount you still have to pay on an existing mortgage. For example, if your home has an appraised value of $100,000.00 and you still owe the bank $50,000.00 in a previous mortgage, then your home has an equity value of $50,000.00. This equity or home value is another important factor that will let the banks or lending institutions know if a person will qualify for a home loan.
The three above factors determine a persons qualifications for obtaining a home mortgage. Depending on a persons ICE mix, he or she may be offered good or bad home mortgage options. For example, if a person has a relative low income with a ten percent equity interest in his home however a high credit score has; this person will qualify for multiple home mortgage options at very competitive interest rates.
Article by John Hoots of Chicago, who is a specialist in real estate investments. For more information on Chicago mortgage, visit his site today.