By Robbie T. James

The idea of buying a home for the first time will fill anybody with a mixture of excitement and anxiety. The excitement part comes from knowing that you could soon be comfortably spending time in your very own home.

The anxiety part comes from the lack of certainty that every first time buyer feels due to never having been through the process before. And, anxiety levels among first time buyers are also generally higher if they have a poor credit score.

If this describes you, the most important thing you can do for yourself in order to reduce your anxiety and increase your excitement is to educate yourself about the process. The next-best thing you can do is to take steps to increase your chances of successfully securing a mortgage.

On the other hand, the worst thing you can do is to just go out there and take a hit-or-miss approach to shopping for a mortgage. Taking a scattershot approach will make it much more likely for you to end up with a stack of mortgage application rejection letters: not something that anybody desires.

When you are looking for first time home loans for poor credit individuals, you owe it to yourself to do your homework first. Here are 5 steps to securing a loan:

1. Build up your down payment fund as much as possible:

Mortgage lenders love a nice-sized down payment. Try to pull together an amount of money equal to 20% of the price of the home you are looking at. If you are short on funds, consider taking a short-term loan from a family member. Also: many retirement account vehicles such as IRAs allow for a one-time, no-penalty withdrawal from the account that can be used to cover first time home purchases.

2. Check out FHA first time buyer programs:

If you are a U.S. resident, the Federal Housing Administration (FHA) offers a program for people buying their first home. The program can help you find mortgage opportunities with lower down payments, low closing costs, and easy credit qualification.

3. Go over your credit report and make notes regarding any red flags:

Given your poor credit score, you should expect that your score will come into play as a potentially negative factor during the application and approval process. For this reason, it is a good idea to order a copy of your credit report now and review it carefully, noting any red flags that you may need to explain to a would-be lender.

4. Build yourself a candidate list of bad credit mortgage lenders:

In addition to any mortgage lender leads you get from your family, friends or online research, be sure to add to your list those lenders who specialize in helping first time home buyers with poor credit. Use the term “bad credit mortgage lenders” when you search.

5. Be diligent about submitting applications to all of them:

You may be tempted to sign the first mortgage offer that comes your way, but remember: you can greatly improve your chances of landing a better interest rate if you apply to at least 4-5 lenders. Do yourself a favor and follow through in applying to all of the lenders on your list.

Take these 5 tips to heart as you go after first time home loans for poor credit home buyers.

About the Author: Get access to more first time bad credit mortgage tips and lending resources at:

First Time Bad Credit Mortgages

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Source:

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