Home Loans - Need To Know

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Live Your Dream or Dream (all) Your Life

There comes a time for every warm blooded human being when the desire to own a home becomes too strong to ignore. Nature has given us the urge to build a nest, warm, comfortable, safe, and attractive.

Unfortunately, Mother Nature forgot to give everyone a parcel of land and the keys to our bungalow so the path to homeownership usually leads us to the doorstep of a home lender, in high hopes of getting a decent home loan.

Although it may seem that way sometimes, these are not necessarily the bad guys in our little tale, but let's just say it pays to be informed and cautious.

Home Loans come in all shapes, colors and sizes and, just like any other commodity, they come with a price tag. This unobtrusive, nasty little fellow is oftentimes the key factor in making or breaking your dream of our own nest in which to raise our young.

This lens aims to bring the overwhelming blur of home loan options into focus and you're invited to participate in our quest for the ultimate goal of homeownership.

Contents at a Glance

What is a FICO Score?
Who determines the FICO Score?
Helpful free web resources for more information on Home Loans

Read Up On Home Loans
Del.icio.us Mortgage Bookmarks

What is a FICO Score?

Why a FICO score is relevant to you

Most consumers heard of the FICO score, but what exactly is a FICO score? Why do you need to know your FICO score? What effect has the FICO score on your credit rating?

When you apply for credit - whether for a credit card, a car loan, or a mortgage - lenders want to know what risk they'd take by loaning money to you.
FICO scores are the credit scores most lenders use to determine your credit risk.
You have three FICO scores, one for each of the three credit bureaus - Experian, TransUnion, and Equifax. Each score is based on information the credit bureau keeps on file about you. As this information changes, your credit scores tend to change as well.
Your 3 FICO scores affect both how much and what loan terms (interest rate, etc.) lenders will offer you at any given time.
Taking steps to improve your FICO scores can help you qualify for better rates from lenders.

Remember:
Higher FICO Scores = Lower Monthly Payments

Who determines the FICO Score?

What else can they do for me?

myFICO is the consumer division of Fair Isaac, the company that invented the FICO credit risk score that lenders use.

myFICO offers informative credit-information products that help people understand actions they can take to achieve and protect their overall financial health.

Please note: myFICO is the ONLY place where you can get your FICO scores, the scores that lenders use, from all three credit bureaus.

Please check out myFICO for a ton of useful information, calculators, and credit education!

Helpful free web resources for more information on Home Loans

It pays to do your home loan homework...

Here's a small but useful list of sites that provide a wealth of information. Quality stuff.

Homeownership Information Resource: A huge but organized, searchable database of almost every article ever written on all aspects of home ownership. Including home finance, of course.
Personal finance advice, news - CNNMoney: News and advice on retirement planning, college saving, taxes, mortgages, autos, real estate, investing and more from CNNMoney.com.
Personal Finance, Personal Finances, and Financial Advice - Forbes.com: Personal Finance - Get financial advice and information from Forbes.com.
Finance Your Home [Fool.com: Home Center]: Fool.com is another one of my favorites for anything finance related.
Affordable Home Calculator from CNNMoney: Tell us how much you make, how much you've got for a downpayment, and your debt, and find out how far to stretch when home hunting. ...
Real Estate - Home Finance Center: New York Times Home Finance Center. Find a Mortgage Powered by Root Markets · How It Works: Complete two easy steps to get matched ...
Freddie Mac's Homepage: Citing Freddie Mac's role and efforts, he called it "extremely important for African Americans to keep their eye on the prize of owning and keeping a home." ...
Compare mortgage rates, home loans, CD rates, auto loans, credit ...: Free, objective information and rate quotes for consumer bank products such as mortgage rates, home loans, credit cards, CDs, auto loans, home equity loans, ...
FM Homepath: Fannie Mae's Homepath. For Home Buyers and Homeowners, we make it easy to help you Find a Counselor, or a state housing finance agency. ...

Read Up On Home Loans

Make better use of your idle time

Nothing beats a good old-fashioned book when it comes to having in-depth reference handy in all situations. These are some recommendations for books that deal exclusively with the ins and outs of Home Loans.