Article: Prepare Your Finances Before Buying Your First Home

Prepare Your Finances Before Buying Your First Home

Thinking about buying your first house? To make the preapproval process seamless, assemble these financial documents:

• Your credit report. Obtain a copy as early as possible and scour it for accuracy. If time permits, pull your credit report three months before you seek preapproval so you have time to rectify any unexpected issues or mistakes. Each major credit bureau must provide one free credit report annually to consumers requesting a copy. To obtain a report visit annualcreditreport.com or call 877-322-8228. Usually, it works well to order one report every four months from a different credit bureau. But when your plan is to buy a house, check all three at once—save up your “free” reports in the year running up to your project—because your goal is to identify discrepancies between the reports as well as to monitor your credit standing.
• W-2 forms. Make copies from the past two years.
• Paystubs. Copy your two most recent ones.
• Financial account statements. Collect statements (including retirement accounts) from the past few months.
• Lines of credit. If you have opened any in the past six months, you’ll need copies of those statements as well, since they might not show up on your credit report.
• Information on vehicles you own. Include make, model, and resale value.
• Credit card account information. Include numbers and types of cards, balances and minimum payments.
• Auto-loan account information. Include account numbers and statements.
• Other loan account information. Think student loans and personal loans.
• Gifts. If you’re fortunate enough to have any money for your down payment gifted to you, identify how much and where it will come from. Be prepared to document that it’s a gift and not a loan.

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