New Hampshire and Maine Homes and Condos

Looking to buy a home or condo in the Portsmouth NH area? 

Make sure you start off by getting a written pre-approval letter from a professional lender.

Now that you've found the perfect Portsmouth home or condo, it's time to make your mortgage application.  Here's what you'll need to get together for your lender so you can provide him or her complete information to get your home mortgage in the works:

--  one month's worth of pay check stubs;
--  your last 2 years' of your W-2 forms;
--  your most recent 2-3 months' of bank account statements;
--  account numbers and contact information on all credit cards and outstanding loans;
--  child support and/or alimony payments, if applicable;
--  your last 2 years' of tax returns, if you're self-employed.

This information is necessary to process your request for a Portsmouth NH home or condo mortgage, so the more documentation you can provide up front, the smoother and more stress-free your real estate purchase and mortgage process will be.  If your lender requests additional informtation, do your best to get that information back as quickly as you can.  Keep the process flowing and don't cause unnecessary delays by not providing what's asked for or by challenging your lender's need for certain information or documentation.

Here are some other tips to pay heed to while you're in the homebuying process:

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If you're thinking about buying real estate in the Portsmouth NH and Maine Seacoast areas, here are some important things to know about credit scores and how that impacts your ability to obtain a home mortgage.

Your credit score is more important today than ever before, and if you've got a good credit score, you want to do everything you can to protect that good score. Your credit score is a good indicator of how likely you are to pay off your debts on time. The more likely your credit history shows this to be, the better the mortgage program will be that you qualify for. The higher your credit score, the better you look to mortgage companies and banks.

Credit scores range from 350 to 850, and the higher your score, the lower the risk you pose. This is how credit scores are categorized:

Excellent Score  --  760 and higher (this number has been increased to closer to 800)

Good Score  --  720 - 760

Average Score --  680 - 720

Reason for Concern --  620 - 680

Reason for Great Concern  --  620 and under

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  Portsmouth New Hampshire Homebuyers - Great FHA Mortgages!!

If you're a homebuyer in the Portsmouth New Hampshire real estate market, a whole new option has now opened up for you with the recent increase in the FHA loan limits.

I wrote a post a few days ago annoucing the increases for the New Hampshire Seacoast areas of Rockingham County and Strafford County. If you missed it - check out this post for the loan limits in various housing categories --- >> Portsmouth NH Real Estate - Great News on New FHA Loan Limits!!

FHA is a little more forgiving when it comes to a person's credit history.

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Are you thinking about buying a home or condo or multi-family in the Portsmouth New Hampshire areas? 

If so, then the newly released increases in the FHA mortgage amounts may be of particular interest to you!  Check the Rockingham County and Strafford County loan limits in the chart below (the yellow highligted rows) - those are some very nice increases for this area for maximum mortgage amounts.

  

The chart below shows the loan limits for those mortgages that close on or after March 17, 2008.  This is good news for buyers and sellers as there is now an option for those needing lower down payments for prices that were above the existing FHA mortgage loan limits.

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