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The first step in purchasing a home is qualifying for a mortgage.  To qualify for a mortgage a home buyer needs a credit score of 620.  However, it is best to get a copy of your credit report before going to the mortgage professional because there is often mistakes on your credit report.  The reason there is often mistakes in your credit report is that the report is done by people and computers.  Sometimes, the computer can compile or mis-compile information of people with similar names, similar numbers in their social security number, similar addresses, etc.  The reason I know these errors can occur as a result of the latter reason is that I had a client who was a junior.  His father filed a bankruptcy and the bankruptcy was showing on the son’s credit report.  I helped the son and father correct the incorrect information, and the son was able to purchase his home.

To find out if errors are on your credit report visit the credit bureau:

• Experian -www.experian.com
• Equifax - www.equifax.com
• Transunion - www.transunion.com

Once you have a copy of your credit report and you discover errors.  Dispute the errors with the credit bureau.  It will take 30 to 45 days for the credit bureau to investigate.  If the error can not be substantiated then the information will have to be removed.  By the way, the remove of the negative information does not automatically increase your credit score.  It may take as long as 60 to 90 days before the removal of the negative information will affect your credit score.

There are two additional facts that you need to know to be successful with getting a mortgage.

The first thing is that the mortgage company uses all three credit bureaus’ scores to create what the mortgage industry terms as a tri-merge.  Once the tri-merge is compiled the mortgage company uses your middle or median score to determine your eligibility for the mortgage.  This is the reason it is important to get a copy of all three credit bureau’s report.

Another fact that you need to know is that shopping around for a mortgage lowers your credit score, so take a copy of your credit report with you to prevent the reduction in credit score.  If the mortgage professional is not willing to use your copy of the credit report to give information about what products or mortgages they have to offer find another mortgage professional to work with that will.  Once you are happy with the product or mortgage allow the company to pull your credit report and begin the process.

However, before you finalize your choice in products please read tomorrow’s post to find out the difference between fixed and adjustable rate mortgages.

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Are you a single parent wondering if you could afford the “American Dream” of home ownership?  The answer is a resounding, “yes”.  However, it will require planning.

In order for you to be successful with your dream of home ownership it is is important to understand several things before getting started on your path to home ownership.  You must know:

• the difference between a home appraisal and a home inspection
• what your credit score is
• how much home you can afford
• what property tax exemptions you are eligible for and why
• what is the difference between fixed and adjustable rate mortgage
• what is replacement cost and how does it affect your insurance premium
• why is it important to shop around for insurance coverage
• why it is important to shop around for a mortgage
• what is mortgage insurance and what does it protect
• what is a FHA loan
• what is a conventional loan
• how much is needed, really, to purchase and maintain a home
• what money saving tips are available to help you maintain your home
• what should you be looking for in a home

Over the next series of posts a renowned and successful broker, author, co-author, and speaker will be addressing the above issues.

Ms. Brown has worked with several first time home buyers, but more importantly she has worked with and coached several single parents through the buying process.  In addition, all of the single parents that she coached through the buying process are still successful and happy homeowners today.

Ms. Brown has over ten years of experience as a real estate professional.  She prides herself on ensure that her clients understand the buying or selling process.  She accomplish this goal by educating her clients with books like “Should I Short Sale My Home” and “How to Make Your Home Sell”.  She also has a successful blog at Taylor-Brown Real Estate Talks.com.

Ms. Brown is not only a license real estate broker in both Indiana and Illinios, but she has two bachelor degrees.  One of her bachelor degrees is in business administration and the other degree is in electronic engineering technology.

It is equally important to point out the goal of Taylor-Brown Real Estate Talks.  Taylor-Brown Real Estate Talks’ goal is to empower the customer through education about real estate, mortgage, insurance, so that the consumer can achieve wealth through the listing and selling of real estate.

Tomorrow’s post will be on the all important credit score.  There has been a lot of changes in the mortgage industry in recent years, and Ms. Brown wants to share with you how those changes will affect your buying experience.

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Peer pressure can be a horrible thing find out why with news from around the blogosphere on the topic:

what is your reaction with these? | Growth

What is Peer Pressure? Peer Pressure- is a social pressure on somebody to adopt a particular type of behavior, dress, or attitude in order to be accepted as part of a group. What is Generation Gap? Generation Gap- is the difference in …

Peer pressure

How about magazines that promotes and sells new things/ideas. Is a magazine equivalent to peer pressure? Do we feel tempted to think the way the magazine thinks and  buy what the magazine says. I think so. What is your take on it?

<a href=”http://positivethoughtoftheweek.posterous.com/positive-peer-pressure”>Positive Peer Pressure</a><p>It’s not that my life doesn’t get frustrating or stressful, I just choose not to react negatively. People see and think, “I want to act and react like that”. Peer pressure has to start somewhere, why  not with me? …</p>

<a href=”http://www.youthink.com/questions.cfm?action=go_prev&obj_id=545287&filter=popular&f_cat_id=-1&time_span=latest&page=1″>Question - Do you easily give into peer pressure? - YouThink.com</a><p>When people say to just say no….it’s not as easy as it looks for some people. I’m in the middle but I feel more towards the yes side. Question.</p>

<a href=”http://intervene.drugfree.org/2009/12/peer-pressure-is-what-made-me-use-drugs-and-alcohol/”>Peer Pressure is What Made Me Use Drugs and Alcohol | INTERVENE: A …</a><p>The fact that I gave into peer pressure—big time—is no big surprise. Other people’s solutions to what I was going through—no matter how much bad judgment was there—was an easy way to let myself off the hook for my own behavior. …</p>

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It is important to me to have a healthy self sustaining son; therefore, I feel it is important to teach him about money management now.  I started teaching him about finances by explaining to him about the importance of saving money.  He has a saving account that he is very proud of.

Even though I taught him about the importance of savings I knew there was so much more that he and I could learn about finances.  I would have to admit that for both our sakes I will have to conquer my compulsive spending hablits first in order to make us both financially free.  Therefore, I am trying to learn the information my finacee’ knows about stocks, mutual funds, bonds, and money market accounts.  She has a vast amount of information she has given me.  In addition, she recently, introduced me to some sources where my son and I can learn more.  Those source are Black Enterprise, Money Magazine, and the local newspaper’s business section.

Once, she challenged me to pick a stock from the paper and watch it performance to determine if it was a good investment.  She pointed out that a good investment would be a commodity, something a person needs no matter what the economy is doing.

I plan to do this activity with my son this summer.

Other tips I learned from Black Enterprise Magazine were:

• teach your child the basic terms of investing
• stick with companies that the child is familiar with like McDonald’s , Nike, etc.
• try programs that allow the individual to purchase directly from the company like (DRIP) programs
• encourage your child to do experiments like the one above and to read up on investing his or her self
• find and send your child to investment camps

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