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First Time Home Buyers

Have you thought about buying a home this year but you have no idea where to start? If so, congratulations you’ve come to the right place. The Back Bay Realty Group is here to help you achieve your goal of owning your own home. We specialize in helping buyers achieve their goals and make sure that the process goes as smoothly as possible.

Below we’ve created a step-by-step guide with information on mortgage qualifications for you to help make your life easier.

Step 1. Select Your Broker:
When you decide to purchase a home it’s important to work the right broker for you. The right broker for you may not be the right broker for your neighbor, your brother/sister or your Great Aunt Edna. Take the time to meet with a few, talk to them and see how you interact; you’re going to spending a lot of time with this person so you better like them.

Step 2. Meet with a Mortgage Broker:
After selecting your agent, the next step is to talk to a mortgage broker. Feel free to start by asking your agent if they can recommend anyone, agents have a good idea of who can close a financing deal and who can’t. There is no worse problem to have than 2 days before the closing, a mortgage broker calling to say actually they can no longer do the loan.

Step 3. Get Your Affairs in Order:
Part of this will be done when you talk to your Mortgage broker, but make sure that you have all the proper documentation to make it easier for the mortgage broker to get your pre-approval done faster and more accurately. So what exactly do first time buyers need?

  • Generally first time buyers need a credit score of 650 or higher
  • Full documentation of W-2’s, Bank Statements, Tax returns (especially if you are self-employed)
  • 3.5% of your down payment must be your own money and not a gift unless you are putting down 20% or more.
  • Verbal verification of rent for the last year including the name and phone number of your landlord

After you do this, it’s up to these two people to take care of the rest. If you’ve done the proper prep work the rest of your transaction should be smoothing sailing.