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If you are in the market for a home mortgage, it's time to start doing your homework. If you don't already know it, things have changed in the last couple of years and the days of easy home mortgages are gone. Getting mortgage money was relatively easy just a few short months ago. That was When house prices were steadily rising and homes were selling practically before they were listed. But that was then and this is now. Things have cooled off a lot, and with a slow down in the real estate market has come higher interest rates along with tougher conditions for getting mortgage approvals. The interest rate hikes that have taken place over the last few months are quite important for prospective new home owners. If you are new to the real estate market you may not appreciate how important low interest rates are to the affordability of homes. On a large home mortgage even a small change in the interest rate can make a very big difference to your payment. In most cases the interest rate can even make the difference between being accepted or rejected for a home mortgage. That's because in order to qualify for a home mortgage your ability to afford the payment is one of the most important criteria for getting approval. And a higher interest rate could easily put the payment out of reach. **Find a home mortgage advisor** One of the first things you should do before making home mortgage decisions is to find a professional advisor who has a lot of experience in the home mortgage business. Look for an advisor who has in-depth and current knowledge of real estate and mortgage trends and can make use of many different sources of mortgage funds. Often your best choice will not be your regular banker. Banks almost always recommend their own products and are not very interested in suggesting other products - even if they are a better deal for you. Think about it this way - if your credit rating is good and you have a good steady income there are lots of lenders out there eager to give you a home mortgage. So you can probably get a better deal than the one your bank is offering. On the other hand, if you don't have a particularly good credit rating or have cash flow problems you may need some creative suggestions. But your bank is not likely to give them to you. They want you to follow their rules and mee their requirements. So really the only time you should use a bank is when you are not concerned with getting a better deal. The altenative is to find a home mortgage advisor who knows the market inside out and who has access to many different solutions from many different sources. **Good deals are still available** Even when credit starts tightening up there are ways to get a good deal on a home mortgage. Sometimes these good deals involve government backed loans such as FHA loans. These loans exist to help people with even horrible credit to borrow as much as 97 percent of the value of their home. The primary requirement is that they have the necessary income to make regular payments. Home mortgages like these are very good deals for many people. They make home ownership possible for many people who might not otherwise qualify. But many traditional lenders either don't know about these options, or they won't recommend them because there is not enough profit in it for them. In fact Even many mortgage brokers will not recommend these loans because they involve some extra work. However, from the borrower's point of view it is worth finding a mortgage broker who will put together the best deal for you. It could make an otherwise impossible mortgage a reality, and it could save you literally thousands of dollars over the life of your mortgage. **An ARM works for some people** There is also another type of loan available called the "option adustable rate loan", commonly referred to as an ARM. This kind of home mortgage allows a person with very good credit to pay as little as 1% interest against a "real" rate of about 7.25%. But be careful with plans like this. The lending institution will add the unpaid interest to the principal of your loan, so the amount you owe actually goes up over time. That means that eventually you will have to start making payments against the increased principal amount. So your payments will actually be higher than they otherwise would have been. You could end up with payments that are more than you can afford to pay. What this approach offers is the opportunity for a borrower to make drastically reduced payments for a short period of time. Its most common use is for people who have short term cash flow problems, or when a borrower sees his or her financial situation improving in a year or two. **Make the right mortgage choices** While these days qualifying for a home mortgage is more difficult, and affording a home mortgage is more expensive, there are still ways to save money - especially when your advisor can bargain between a number of different money sources. To find these deals it is very important to find those sources. That is why it is so important to deal with an experienced professional advisor you can trust. This person will have in-depth knowledge of the current home mortgage situation and be experienced in dealing with situations like yours. The best advisor is a broker who has hundreds of lenders to draw on, so almost everyone can get what they are looking for.
By: Dean Weber
Dean Weber has more than two decades experience as a home mortgage advisor, providing commercial mortgages and all kinds of loans. Read these mortgage client testimonials to see how much actual home owners appreciate Mortgages-Mall.com This and other unique content home mortgage advisor articles are available with free reprint rights.
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