What's the Minimum Credit Rating to Get a Home Mortgage?

A few years ago, getting approved for a mortgage was easy. Credit ratings, income verification and debt to income ratios seemed like they never existed. These are a few of the reasons that getting a home mortgage is harder than it has been. A common question today from potential buyers is "What is the minimum credit score needed for a mortgage?"



Well, typically speaking, a potential home buyer should have a credit score of 650 or more to avoid facing hard times getting approved from banks or mortgage lenders.



A credit score tat low typically means that if you are approved, your interest rates, terms or conditions will not be ideal. Although it is possible to still obtain a mortgage with a low credit rating, it is not generally recommended.



However, every little bit you can do to improve your credit situation prior to applying for a home mortgage loan will help, a lot. Improving your credit score will allow you more options as well as the chance to obtain much lower home loan interest rates.



Even 1% of interest savings can easily add up to thousands of dollars over the course of a 30 year mortgage. Try to pay off any debts you can in full. Start with smaller debts then chip away at the higher interest debts you may have.



If you owe people small amounts of money, but they have already reported you to the credit reporting companies, paying these debts off and having those credit reports updated to paid in full, it will dramatically increase the money you will save when getting a home mortgage.



A lot of people can actually pay off their debts in full, especially their credit card debts, but choose instead to make the smallest payments they can and keep a few extra dollars in their pockets. Change this bad habit now and improve your financial situation and pay those debts down or off entirely.



Also, while making minimum payments is acceptable, it shows no commitment or effort to pay your debts. This plays a role when a mortgage lender or bank is evaluating your financial situation.



If the bank sees that even though you have a lot of debt, that you pay as much as you can, which is typically more than the minimum payment, you will be considered less of a credit risk.



Getting a home mortgage can be hard with a credit score of 650 or less, but not impossible. It will no doubt be more difficult to obtain a mortgage, let alone one with favorable terms, rates, or conditions, but with a little research and legwork it can be found. Apply to a few different mortgage providers and see which one offers the best deal.



Good luck getting your home mortgage, do not give up.

Introducing Digital Mail Maker, one of the first Automated Sales and Marketing tools for Branded Customer Contact through Web, Email, Print, and Fax Channels

San Diego, CA February 28, 2004โ€"-Digital Mail Maker (DMM), a leading provider of on-demand and personalized marketing solutions based in San Diego, Calif., today announced the availability of one of the industry's first automated sales and marketing tools that allows for branded customer contact through web, email, print or fax channels.







DMM is a hosted application that stores branded templates for email, fax and print media as well important pre-structured sales/product messages. These templates and messages can be instantly composed and sent to customers and prospects, individually or in batches, through any media channel.



DMM provides branding and portability of marketing across all of these channels, when typically a different application is required for each function.







โ€œDMM integrates sales and contact management, marketing, and customer service and support software tools into one affordable solution,โ€ said John Schlesinger of Deluxe, a San Francisco skateboard marketing agency. โ€œIt bridges the gap between sales and marketing and integrates offline advertising with online efforts.โ€







DMM's full-automatic and semi-automatic delivery of sales messages benefits all involved, including:



o Marketing Directors have more control over outbound content sent by salespeople.



o Sales Managers can monitor and oversee salespeople's use.



o Salespeople get an easy-to-use marketing engine that only requires a 15-minute learning curve.







The DMM tool uses very basic CRM functions to track and build a database of customer contacts. Within each company account, each user on the system has an individual contact list management module for storing their client information. By marrying digitally stored marketing with the contact manager, DMM easily personalizes all marketing media.



DMM also features a campaign tool that generates custom web landing pages that collects information from visitors sent there by all methods of advertising. DMM assists the website in tracking the effectiveness of any type of ad campaign designed to push customers to the internet. When customers come to the website to follow up on ad campaigns, the system automates the capture, initial response and subsequent management of the leads collected.







Reporting tools show up-to-the-minute reports of all activity on the system.



The system automatically stores a complete history of what was sent, who sent it and when it was received. The DMM system is also accessible from any computer with internet access.







โ€œDMM is simple to learn and easy to use. It provides better benefits than other CRM solutions without the significant expense, learning curve or failure to achieve return on investment goals,โ€ said Joe Dahleen of Mortgage Investment Lending Associates. โ€œThere's finally a marketing distribution tool that will actually get used by busy sales teams.



โ€







For more information about Digital Mail Maker, visit http://www.digitalmailmaker.com or call 800-433-5135.







About Digital Mail Maker



Digital Mail Maker (DMM) is a leading provider of on-demand and personalized marketing solutions. DMM is a hosted application that can send personalized marketing and sales messages in the format best suited to the needs of the person making the request -- email, website, fax, PDF or print. It bridges the gap between sales and marketing by personalizing and sending stored preformatted marketing messages on demand.



The DMM website is designed to help small-to-medium businesses generate consistent, branded, personalized marketing across any media channel requested by their clients and prospects.







Digital Mail Maker was recently honored by the InfoWorld 100 as one of 100 companies that demonstrated the most creative use of cutting-edge technologies to further their business goals. The InfoWorld 100 recognizes companies like Digital Mail Maker that made the best use of technology to enhance their businesses.



A full list is available at: http://www.infoworld.com/565

Does Your Website Have A Squeeze Page?

Every time webmasters and work at home business owners think they have mastered the Internet, the search engines change the rules. There are two reasons for this. The first reason is to make it easier to recognize older sites that are not changing.



The second is to make it easier to offer visitors good search results.



Squeeze pages, or lead capture pages, have been around for a long time, but they are just catching on with webmasters. Most new webmasters are overwhelmed by all the internet marketing information needed to turn a website into a success.



Once the website is finished, then they must learn about blogs and forums. Page Rank and inbound links are another problem that needs to be tackled.



However, many of these internet marketing tools are vital to success, and leaving them too long can result in lost income, and even failure.



Learning the basics is good, but after a month or two, many work at home business owners become tired, and stop surfing looking for new information. Or, they run into so many 'spam' sites that say the same thing, and try to sell the same products, they believe they've learned everything there is to learn.



Those who continue learning are continually frustrated. They wished they had learned the information earlier, and increased their profit margins and ROI, Return On Investment.



Why make a squeeze page now? A squeeze page is a one-paged advertisement that encourages subscribers to join an email list, or clicks on links leading to your products and services. Notice that subtle different between a squeeze page and a buy-now page.



The idea of a squeeze page is to make a quick and eye catching way to grab visitor's attention within the first few seconds.



The page must entice them. Most visitors leave within a few seconds. The squeeze page should make them stop and think twice before hitting the back button, or starting another web search.



The problem is that many people mix up the idea of a squeeze page and a high-pressure sale's page.



A squeeze page is often written in uppercase, bolded, underlined, highlighted and fancy fonts. But, it also offers something instantly. It does not force the reader to surf to the end of the page to learn that they must pay $200 to access the information and benefits.



Online marketing businesses need a sales page. This page is mistakenly promote in traffic exchanges and search engines. These pages explain the program or service, and they do have attention grabbing information, but they are longer in their description.



There are also landing pages. There are articles that offer solutions to problems and lead the visitor deeper into the website.



The sales includes testimonials from happy customers, but they shouldn't include the information from the squeeze pages and landing pages - that is what makes them too long.



The sales page outlines the features, bonuses, and benefits of the product, and a reason to buy-now.



Most people need to see an ad three times before they think of buying. They may purposely ignore the buy-now page, flipping through various landing pages, and squeeze pages, until they realize that they really do need to buy the product or service.



The squeeze page is only meant to capture attention and keep the reader involved. In fact, instead of asking the visitor to buy anything, it may direct them to specific articles, blog posts, or forums in the network that will help them solve a specific problem.



There are software programs that create squeeze pages. The content is free. Just make sure that the finished product sends the message the visitor needs. After all, a web page which makes a mortgage broker look like a used car sale's person will never produced the desired 'decision to buy' clicks

Mortgage 101 - What You Need To Know About A Home Loan

Qualifying for a Mortgage



Before you buy a home, it is crucial that you weigh how you can afford to pay for it. You don't want to waste time or money by bidding on a house that you cannot afford or by applying for a loan that is beyond your means to pay month after month and year after year. Figuring out your budget for your home will make it easier to get the right loan and also to know what changes you may need to make to your finances and to you credit profile.



As a standard rule you are advised to buy a house worth no more than 3 times your gross household income.



Use this figure if you have some other debts, such as student loans, car payments, or sizable credit card balances. If you have no other debts, you likely can afford a house that costs as much as five times your annual household income.



When potential lenders review your ability to qualify you for a home loan, they are going to pay close attention to your debt-to-income ratio (DTI). To determine your DTI, start by computing your total net monthly income. This includes your monthly wages and any overtime, commissions or bonuses that are guaranteed; plus any pension monies or monies that come from alimony or child support, if applicable.



If your income varies month-to-month, calculate your monthly average over the past two years. Don't forget to include any other monies earned, whether from rentals or any other additional income.



To determine your monthly debt obligations, make sure to include all of your credit card bills, any loans, such as automobile, student, or personal and the amount of the new mortgage payment in the loan that you will apply for. Make sure to include your monthly rent payments if you rent.



When you are adding up your credit card obligations, use the minimum required monthly payment. Divide your total monthly debt obligations by your total monthly income. This is your total debt-to-income ratio. The lower your DTI, the better. A high DTI can prevent you from getting the loan. It also can be a warning sign that even a loan that you qualify for could be a serious burden to make each month.



Most lenders traditionally will qualify your for the loan with a DTI of 28% to 44% of your monthly income.



In other words, if your monthly income is $4,000, the lender would ordinarily want you to pay no more than $1,760 (.44 x $4,000) toward all your debts. Some sub-prime lenders will allow borrowers to have DTI ratios as high as 55%.



You may have compensating factors that will allow you to qualify for the loan, even with a less than desirable DTI. For instance, f you have an excellent credit record, a lender might allow you to go more deeply into debt. Just how high a DTI you can have and still qualify for the loan will depend on such factors as the amount of your down payment, the interest rate on your new mortgage, your credit history and score, and how much other debt you are carrying.



Bills.com has mortgage calculators that will help you quickly determine monthly payments on different size mortgages so you can learn how much house you can afford. All calculators are not created equal -- but all of them are free. You should investigate different scenarios, so you can see how the amount of down payment, the length of the loan term, and the interest rates will affect the size of the monthly payment. (http://www.bills.com/mortgage/)



Before you start shopping for a loan and a home, you need to know some terms you will encounter:



Pre-qualification.



Getting pre-qualified for a loan is a good thing, but it is NOT a guarantee that you will actually get the loan. To get pre-qualified, you will speak to a lender and go over the standard questions: your income (and DTI), your credit rating, and the size of your down payment. Prequalifying lets you determine exactly how much you'll be able to borrow and how much you'll need for a down payment and closing costs. Still, the lender is not asking to see the proof of your income claims, so any 'approval' you receive you can vanish into thin air.



Pre-approval. If you are serious about moving forward, it is recommended to get pre-approved for a specific loan amount. To get pre-approved, the lender will actually verify your credit and income documents, rather than relying on the numbers you provide them about your income and debts.



The documents that you will need to assemble for the lender to get your pre-approval are: Federal Income Tax Returns and W-2 forms for the past two years; the two most recent months' pay stubs with your name and year-to-date earnings; proof of any other income you claim on your application, such as alimony, pensions or Social Security income; a list of all your creditors that shows the total balances due and the minimum required monthly payments, and proof of all assets, such as savings, stocks and bonds, or any other real estate owned.



Funds to be used for a down payment likely need to be in your account for two months before you can use them, IF they are coming from someone else, like your parents. Just having the funds in your account is NOT enough. Lenders will demand that any funds used to satisfy down payment and closing costs must come from your own resources. Funds must be 'seasoned' in your possession for at least two to three months. You can prove the funds are 'seasoned' by supplying two to three months of bank statements or documentation demonstrating that funds have been in your possession.



Almost every lender is going to ask to see the credit reports supplied by the three main credit bureaus: Experian, Equifax, and TransUnion. The credit report will show your financial history, showing the different transactions you have made, as well as providing your credit risk score. This score is known as the FICO score, named after Fair, Isaac, & Company, who developed many of the computer scoring models. It can be almost impossible to fully understand why your FICO scores is what it is, but key factors that are weighed in determining your score are: How timely you have paid your bills, how much debt you are carrying, how much of your available credit you are using (the size of the balance compared to the size of the credit line), how many credit cards and loans you have open, how many people have looked at your credit report recently, and if there is any negative information about in the public record area of your report.



This area is where a judgment against you would appear as well as items like tax liens filed by the State or Federal Government.



The higher your credit score, the easier it will be for you to qualify for a loan. If you routinely pay your bills late, you will have a lower score, in which case a lender may either reject your loan application altogether or insist on a very large down payment or high interest rate. Because your credit history has such an important effect on the type and amount of mortgage loan you'll be offered, make sure that you check your report regularly.



If you find it necessary to clean up your report, you will want to do so before you apply for a mortgage. Almost every lender is going to ask to see the credit reports supplied by the three main credit bureaus reporting your file: Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion. The credit report will show a history of your financial transactions as well as providing your credit risk score. This score is known as the FICO score, named after Fair, Isaac & Company, who developed many of the computer scoring models.



It can be almost impossible to fully understand why your FICO score is what it is, but key factors being weighed in the scoring are: How timely you have paid your bills, how much debt you are carrying, how much of your available credit you are using (the size of the balance compared to the size of the credit line), how many credit cards and loans you have open, how many people have looked at your credit report recently, and if there is any negative information about in the public record area of your report.



At the end of the day, if your mortgage and home fit into a well thought out financial game-plan, home ownership can be one of the most rewarding investments in your portfolio. Be sure to consider all of the issues, and make sure you get the right loan for your needs.