Buying your first home will frustrate you to no end if you try to do it yourself.  Learning every part of every regulation is a full-time job.  It’s what we do every day.  If your tooth falls out, you see a dentist – call a realtor when you want to buy a house!  If you’re reading this, you’re obviously interested in owning your first home.  We want to make it so easy for you that you’ll never stress over it.  Here are four things that you can start to work on NOW to help you prepare for the process of buying your first St. Louis home.

Read Your Credit Report Before Buying Your First St. Louis Home

Your credit report is the single most powerful weapon, for or against you, in the home purchase process.  If your score goes up or down even a few points, it can cost you thousands.  It’s vital that you understand your report, and be prepared to fight for your credit score.

The first thing to do when you’re preparing to purchase a new home is to pull your credit report and check it carefully.  There are reported issues on people’s credit reports commonly, and they can wreck your credit without you having done anything wrong.  If you know that a report is false, get it fixed.  Identity theft and companies making filing mistakes have cost applicants thousands of dollars.

Call a Realtor Before You Start The Process of Buying Your First St. Louis Home

Realtors are your Sherpa through the process of buying a home.  We guide you through the steps and help you to make it to the mountaintop of owning a home.  A good realtor helps you find the perfect house, gets you private walkthroughs and makes the paperwork a snap.  We’ll help you find a mortgage company and get your home approved.  A great realtor really helps make the process seamless.  We will also help you to get re-approved with a qualified lender to make sure you can make a quick offer in today’s competitive marketplace.

Money Down Towards Buying Your First St. Louis Home

Many renters tell us that they can’t afford a down payment, so they feel stuck renting as the costs rise.  If you want to be a homeowner, though, you are going to have to sacrifice and start putting money away.

You don’t need 20% down anymore, though.  There are a variety of loan programs that will help you own a home with a smaller down payment, so don’t let that be a barrier to your entry into the world of home ownership.

If you’re ready to buy or sell your home, Rick & Tracy Ellis are ready to make your dream come true.  Call us today at 636-299-3702, email us directly at tracy@tracyellis.com, and visit tracyellis.com for more information on buying and selling your home.  You can also listen to the “The Rick and Tracy Ellis Show” every Saturday at 4 p.m. and Sunday at 10 a.m.