If your lender tries to sell you (optional!) life insurance with the mortgage think it through and don’t let the lenders pretty talk convince you. Even in the hardest of times, such as we have these days, do not always justify buying a life insurance from your mortgage broker. And there are some simple reasons for that. First of all, in most cases the insurance your lender will try to sell you will be a lot more expensive that the regular, old-fashioned term life insurance. Also, any other mortgage protection should be looked upon with caution as it may turn out that it will be cheaper just to save money and attempt to pay your mortgage back faster.
Although you will most probably be asked to buy a homeowners insurance, or mortgage insurance (even though you may already have life insurance) remember that you are free to choose how much insurance you need and feel free to shop around and find the best rates for you. Again, this way you may save a few hundreds.

If you are applying for a loan it is always good to ponder on your total monthly income prior to consulting a loan broker. Although you might think that ‚not showing off’ with some of your income may be desirable from the point of view of paying taxes, when it comes to mortgages the more the better. So if you have an ‚unofficial’ income it is good to make it official and thus make it count for the bank. This way you will be able to take a bigger loan, or for a longer period of time, which would, in turn, mean that you have a smaller monthly installment to give back. The bank will keenly take into consideration your self-employed income, as well as sales commissions, or disability income. Even if you have child support, or alimony (provided you have the court order mandating the payments and some proof that they are made) you can add that too. If you also happen to have any, long forgotten stocks options, assets, or even royalties from computer software you may be almost certain you will be a valuable client in the eyes of any bank.

Getting a mortgage is most probably one of the most important decisions in your life as you will repay it for twenty to thirty years. Therefore, you should do whatever is possible to take the most suitable mortgage for you. So first of all, you should decide if what you need if a fixed-rate mortgage, or adjustable-rate mortgage – ARM. When you’ve decided whether fixed rate mortgage is more desirable to you or the adjustable rate mortgage use one of many mortgage calculator available on the internet to compare what different banks or lender have to offer. Then discuss your candidates with friends and family to check how dependable the banks are. It might seem natural to take the mortgage with the lowest interest rate as it will cost you the least. But take into consideration that some banks may add some unnecessary fees, or cause some troubles so you should make sure your lender is dependable. It is also advisable to make plans considering timing. Do not expect that your bank or lender will do everything according to your pre-planned schedule. You should remember that you’re talking about large sums of money and that the banks have their own schedules so take it easy.

Before you find the home of your dreams you have to find a real estate agent that will help you. Thus it would sem quite logical that you need the best real estate agent you can find to make your dream come true. There are at least a few things you can do to make sure you are working with people to whom your satisfaction with a house or a flat is almost as important as to you.
First of all you should make sure that the estate agent you decide to work with is a full-time agent and not someone who gets distracted by too many things. Such real estate agents are by definition more professional and, what is important, they usually have quite a big experience. Secondly, make sure that you work with buyer’s agent and not someone who also sells as such a person might tend to show you houses which he is trying to sell and which might not completely meet your expectations.
In order to find a good buyer’s agent it is always good to ask your family, friends, colleagues from work and any other trustworthy people. You can also use Google and search for real estate agents in the area you are interested in, but be sure to look for ‘exclusive buyer’s agents’.
When you think you’ve found an agent do not hesitate to aks a few questions, such as: ‘How long have you been working as an agent?’, ‘How many transactions have you closed in the last few months?’, Have the houses you recently sold been in my price range?’ and so on and so on.
One more important thing is to aks your real estate agent to accept a flat rate you can afford. If it is possible try to persuade your agent not to take the standard estate commission but to accept the flat rate and you might add that you will add another $100 for every $1,000 you spend under your target price. That way you still save some money and your agent is even more motivated to find you what you are looking for.