Who Should You Believe,
Your Lender Or Your Budget?

Today's lenders have very very sophisticated software and complex computer models based on millions of actual scenarios, to determine exactly who is most likely to be late on payments or foreclose on a home and who might be an excellent borrower.

Assuming you are not one extreme or the other, a lender will be able to see where in the spectrum you fall. And when they see that, they will tell you what you qualify for. If you have excellent credit, you may qualify for a great deal. Let's say you qualify for a home amount that would make your monthly payment $5,000.

But you know, based on your own budget, that $5,000 just isn't going to fly. You may already know that any payment over $2000 would not work.

Choose a mortgage and a monthly payment that works for you. Are there are exceptions to this rule? Absolutely, we all know every rule is made to be broken.

In a market that you know is appreciating strongly, it may be to your advantage to buy a little more than you are comfortable with. If the market is stagnant, with no hope in the future, it may not be wise to over purchase. If you're still uncertain or uncomfortable about the mortgage to select, sit down with your budget, looking at all your other expenses: car, insurance, healthcare, credit cards, utilities, groceries, etc..

If you have a spouse or partner, invite them to join you as well. Go over your budget and see what you can realistically afford. This may aid you in choosing your appropriate price point...