Buying your own home can be one of the best experiences of your life, but it is also one of the most stressful. There is a lot to keep in mind, not only pertaining to what you want in a home, but also how to finance that home. Credit and mortgages can be tricky to navigate, but it’s not impossible by any means. Read on for three tips to use when you start looking for a home.


Check Your Credit


Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you know just how important your credit score. It influences all sorts of things in your life, and home buying is no different. Buying a home with a low credit score is much harder, but you can do it. The first step here is to know your score. Then you can counteract it by putting a large sum of money down on a home. In general, you should aim to have a score higher than 680 — or 620 for FHA home loans — according to the Home Loan Learning Center. In addition, successful borrowers tend to have an average debt to income ratio of about 24% according to Ellie Mae data.


Understand Types of Mortgages


There are numerous types of mortgages out there, each with their own benefits and drawbacks. It is important to do research and speak with a financial advisor in order to fully understand these types and discuss which ones would be the best for you.


Compare Mortgages


Now that you know types of home loans and understand your credit score, you need to compare home loans that are available to you. You must compare mortgages in order to secure the best deal for yourself. By overlooking this step, you could be passing up something that will significantly help you in the future.


Will you be using any of these tips in you home search? Which ones are the most important to you? Do you think you’ll have trouble with any of these?