Want to Buy a House? First Do This One Year in Advance

Many people get excited when they get to the point in their life where they decide they want to buy a house.

We were the exact same way on all three houses we have bought!

However, we weren’t smart enough to plan a year out in advance for our first two homes. In retrospect, that could have really bitten us in the butt if two specific things weren’t in the optimal ranges.

What were those things and how can you make sure you have them in order?

How to Save Thousands of Dollars on Your House

There is an easy way to save thousands of dollars on your house and it doesn’t even involve negotiating with anyone. What is the simple trick? This first trick will help you lower your interest rate to the best possible rate.

Did you know that as little as 0.5% difference in interest rate, for example 4.0% vs 4.5%, on a $200,000 mortgage can result in $21,000 difference in payments over the life of the loan.

Checking and Managing Your Credit

Having a credit score of above 720 will normally qualify you for the best interest rates available on mortgages. If your score is currently below 720 or is close to 720 then you have some major work to do over the next year.

Even if you have a great credit score there are a few things you should make sure to manage to ensure you keep your score in the 720+ range to save thousands.

The first key is pulling your free annual credit report. If you don’t know how, visit AnnualCreditReport.com. This report will not have your credit score but it will contain all of the information that your credit score is calculated from.

Make sure everything is correct. If there is anything that isn’t accurate you should dispute it, especially if it is a negative item. After that you’re ready to start looking at your credit score.

If you don’t understand the components of your credit score, make sure to read my post to learn more. You can’t change the past, but you can change the future to have the best rate possible when you apply for your mortgage.

Make sure you don’t make a single late payment from now on to keep the largest portion of your credit score high. If you have incurred late payments in the past, make sure you set up a system so that they don’t occur any more. Be proactive as you can.

Next, try to lower credit utilization ratio (the amount of debt compared to your credit limit) to 30% or less if at all possible. Lower is better and 0% is best.

In order to get the lowest possible balance on your credit cards make sure to pay down to a zero balance before your statement date, as that is when most credit card companies report your balance to the credit bureaus.

Between these first 2 categories you’ve already accounted for 2/3rds of your credit score.

Don’t close any old accounts to keep your credit history length and average account age as long as possible. The only exception is if there is a card with a large annual fee that is prohibitively expensive.

Finally, don’t apply for any new credit or apply for anything that will result in a credit inquiry. This last tip is the easiest 10% of your credit score to keep high. No inquiries = more points.

Unfortunately, at this point you really can’t do much about your credit mix, the last category of your credit score. You don’t want to apply for any new loans to balance out the mix but you could potentially close some newer credit cards if you have too many.

Remember, you don’t want to affect the length of your credit history or make the average age of credit shorter.

To get an idea of how you perform in these categories, and to get an approximation of your credit score (not your actual FICO score) make sure to check out my Chase Credit Journey review.

If you already have a Capital One account, it might be easier to use Capital One CreditWise, instead.

If you don’t have either of those, Credit Sesame will give you a grade for each credit score category and give you ways to improve each category.

Credit Sesame will also give you an approximate credit score, but make sure you realize that the score they provide isn’t your FICO score which your lender may use to determine your mortgage interest rate.

The credit scores do tend to use the same factors to determine scores, but they can come up with different results.

Now that you know some tips and tricks to get or keep your credit score above the magic 720 number you’re on your way to savings thousands on your next house purchase. Putting a little bit of effort into managing your credit can make a huge difference.

It is amazing how much a 0.5% difference in your interest rate makes in your total payments on your mortgage.

Not checking our credit scores a year in advance of  applying for our mortgage almost messed us up.

We did check them as soon as we figured out we were serious at looking into buying a house, but at that point my fiancee’s score was in the borderline 720 range and we only had 30 days to apply for a mortgage.

Unfortunately, credit scores don’t update immediately so we were sweating bullets to see if her score would be above 720. We made a couple of quick adjustments, such as paying off her credit card before her statement date, and luckily we squeaked her into 720+ just in time.

However, there is another key factor your should be planning at least a year in advance of your house purchase. Find out what it is here.

Did you manage your credit score before you applied for your mortgage and bought a house or were you flying blind? Did it affect your interest rate? Let me know in the comments.