Best Ways to Improve Your Credit Score for a Home Loan

by Gloria Wharton Content Writer

If you want to buy a home but your credit is not in good shape, don't despair. It's never too late to work on your credit and make it more presentable to lenders. It may be disheartening to look at your credit score, but you could see some significant improvements when you get into work. Here are some best ways you can improve your credit score to prepared for a home loan.

Pay Off Delinquent Accounts

One of the easiest ways to improve your credit score is to repay accounts, debits, bills in debt collection agencies, and judgments. You might be worried that you don't have the capital to do this in advance, but you don't have to worry. Pay off each account separately. If you don't have the right amount of funds to pay them in full, set up a payment arrangement with creditors. This will help you make more manageable payments towards your funds. After a while, you'll have paid for everything. This may be a slow process, but you don't have to wait for everything to be repaid to apply for a mortgage. You can show lenders that you have slowly repaid your debt. As a result, they will see that you are serious about a home loan and repaying your debt.

Decrease Your Debt-to-Income Ratio

Many lenders will look at your debt-to-income ratio to determine your eligibility for a home purchase program. If your income is lower than the debt level you have, lenders may see you as a liability and someone who cannot reliably make monthly payments on a home. To solve this problem, you can reduce your debt-to-income ratio by reducing your debt or increasing your income. To reduce your debt, you can pay off delinquent accounts individually. You can pay the lowest amount of debt first and slowly work your way up to the highest level of debt until everything is repaid. This is called a debt snowball method, which makes debt payments more manageable by breaking them up into small chunks.

You can also increase your income by doing part-time work, picking up more hours at your current job, or getting a second job. By rising your income, you can decrease your debt-to-income ratio.

Avoid New Debts

Borrowing new debt is one of the worst things you can do when trying to qualify for a home loan. Lenders consider you a risk and will find that you are not financially responsible. This is a big problem because lenders want to make sure that you can keep up with the monthly payments on your home. If you take on new debt and don't even pay your current debt, they can automatically reject your application and move on to the next applicant.

Dispute Wrong Information

Many people have become victims of identity theft. If someone steals your identity, they may open new accounts in your name. For example, you rent an apartment or lease a car. If you default on payments, this can hurt your credit score. However, you do not have to fall victim to someone else's misconduct. You can challenge incorrect information in your credit report. Notify all credit reporting agencies that someone has stolen your identity and that you are working diligently to get to the bottom of the situation. Even if the credit bureaus do not remove the negative account from your credit report, they will write an indication that you have been a victim of identity theft.

Qualifying for a home loan is not impossible if you have a poor credit rating. However, it will take a lot of work to get your score where it needs to be. But, if you do, you will be able to get the house of your dreams.