How to become a homeowner

Although home prices have gone up in Maricopa, there are still many good real estate buys.

If you are a renter, a mortgage still can be equal to or less than your current rent.

If you are not a cash buyer, the very first step in buying a home is to get prequalified for a loan. This really is painless and easy. There is a short application to fill out and the bank will run a credit check. Getting prequalified will help you to know your purchase price limit and what your monthly payments will be.

I spoke with Lisa Barrera from Prime Lending who gave me some helpful information about today’s lending market.

“Rates are starting to creep up a bit, but they are still at historically low levels, which makes now a good time for buying a home,” Lisa said.

There are many loan products to choose from and they are geared for all types of income and credit levels. “The minimum credit score a person can have is 620 for most loan products,” Lisa said.

If you do not know what your credit score is, you can get an annual free credit report from AnnualCreditReport.com. This is very helpful information as sometimes there are errors on your report that can be corrected.