Dreaming about buying a house? Many people focus on down payment alone, but that’s not the only thing you should be looking at when preparing to buy a house. Here are 6 things you should do while saving to buy a house.

1. Check Your Credit Report

Your credit score is used to determine which programs and interest rates you qualify for, so as soon as you start thinking about buying a house, you should check your credit report. Free reports can be pulled from each of the credit bureaus at www.annualcreditreport.com Once you have your report, check to make sure the information is correct. If you find errors, be sure to go through the process to get them corrected, it’s worth the hassle. If you can, take steps to boost your score. Things like paying down balances, raising your credit limits and paying on time all help boost your score.

2. Pay Your Bills On Time

Late or missing payments can really affect your score and limit your options once you’re ready to buy your house. Paying your bills on time each month is one of the easiest things you can do to boost your score.

3. Tally up your Debt

You’ll want to look at monthly minimum payments, interest rates and total balance due on each account. Not only is this an important thing to know when making your budget, it also plays a part in applying for a mortgage. When you apply, we do a calculation that compares your total monthly debt payments to your total monthly income, this calculation is called a debt-to-income ratio. If your ratio is too high, we may need to figure out a way to either reduce your monthly debt payments or increase your gross monthly income. 

4. Make a budget

This is a 2-parter. First we want to make a budget for right now. Take a look at your income, savings and recurring debt numbers. Where can you cut down? Trimming discretionary spending (like eating out, vacations & clothes) and putting that money into your savings instead can make a big impact on your down payment savings. Also consider: What debt can you pay down? 

Next you want to make a tentative budget for after you purchase your new home. Factor in additional costs that you may not be paying now like extra utilities and maintenance costs. Once you have those numbers together, you can determine a range where you’d like your perfect house payment to be. 

5. Research where you might want to live

Now is the time to start looking at different communities in your area. Which have amenities that you appreciate? How are the restaurants? Schools? Parks? Access to public transit? Is it close the businesses you frequent? 

Once you’re ready to start touring homes, knowing where you want to target your search prevents confusion and keeps the process streamline.

6. Consult a Mortgage Specialist

I think this should be your first step, but hey, I’m biased. Sometimes people feel nervous to reach out early in the process, maybe you feel like you should have more money in savings or want to pay down a couple debts before we meet. In reality, spending some time with a mortgage advisor early in the process can take the anxiety and guesswork out of getting a loan. I’ve seen it all, so there’s no judgment. And when we start the process together, you have an experienced eye looking over your credit report, debt and budget with you. Once we’ve gone over those details, we can create an action plan to put you in the best possible position once you’re ready to move forward.

Bottom Line:

There’s a lot more to buying a house than saving for a down payment and taking these steps while you’re saving will help everything run more smoothly once you start touring homes.