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This article with explore the obstacles you can avoid when you are in the market to buy a new home. Here are some pointers and strategies to help you prepare for success along with the appropriate mortgage information:

Know your credit score. You may be able to get a better mortgage interest rate and more favorable loan terms by restructuring some of your balances on credit cards, car loans, etc. Loan professionals help you correct errors on your credit report and score and determine which balances to transfer and eliminate in order to improve your credit score.

Understand your own household spending habits and establish how much you can afford to spend each month

Some of the areas to consider (Especially for First Time Home Buyers):

- How much you are going to use for a down payment and where this money is going to come from

- Understand your before and after-tax monthly payments

- Restructure some other debt you may have to free up more monthly cash flow that enables you to improve your home buying budget

Don't get caught in the pre-approval | pre-qualification trap. It is always better to get a full approval / loan commitment from a mortage company before you even start looking for homes for sale in Northern Virginia. Many mortgage brokers and lenders will give you a pre-approval or pre-qualification, but these are often meaningless. What you really need is a bona fide commitment from a mortgage lender that you are in fact approved for financing. Many home purchases have been ruined because buyers, sellers and Realtors have counted on pre-approval letters that proved meaningless.

Start Paying attention to the local and regional economic factors paying particular attention to local housing inventories, local unemployment rates, speculation and other factors that can have an impact on the Northern Virginia Real Estate market.