How to Fill Out the Perfect Home Loan Application Form

For those people looking to sign up to their first mortgage or home loan it is an unfortunate fact that thanks to the current awful economic climate there has not been a worse time in recent years to try to get a loan. With many countries across the planet in financial turmoil and the bursting of the US housing bubble having affected so many large financial institutions, the knock on effect is that they have been forced to reduce the amount of money they lend and the amount of people that they lend that money to. Whilst such measures are no doubt good for the economy as a whole, for people who are looking out for their first home loan, it makes things a lot more difficult to find a home loan deal.

However, if you want to ensure that you are one of the people that banks and financial institutions decide to lend to, there are certain things you can do to improve your chances. First off, do your research so you know which sort of home loan will be right for you, deciding whether you prefer fixed or variable rates, tracker loans and whether you want to opt for repayment or interest only loans. Once you’ve done this you need to do some research and then find out which institutions offer the kind of mortgage you are looking for and which ones offer the best rates at the moment. Lastly, go online and work out how much your monthly repayments will be using one of the many free mortgage calculators you will find online.

Now comes the hard bit – getting approval. First off you need to have built up a perfect, or near perfect credit history. This is one of the most important factors in getting a home loan. It will not matter how much money you have raised for your deposit or how impressive your loan to value ration will be – if you’ve got a bad credit history they will not be wanting to lend to you. So ensure that in the months before you apply for your loan that you never default on any payments, and that you keep those credit cards and store cards up to date! As well as this, make sure you are on the electoral roll and that you have bank accounts that have been open for a number of years. All the bank wants to see if personal and financial stability, so a long bank account history with regular paychecks will please them and encourage them to lend to you.

Finally, once you have sorted the application and are confident of your credit record, the other thing you can do is use a broker rather than your bank. This is because a real estate and loan broker will be able to help you get a mortgage using the contacts they have built with lending institutions. Brokers don’t get paid unless they get you your home loan, so they will make sure you haven’t missed any detail in your application and will work hard to get you a loan. Take advantage of this!

Alex is a financial journalist and blogger. He currently writes about personal finance and anything affecting small businesses from funding sources to outsourcing to government purchase order financing .