Before considering applying for a home loan, there are a few things that need to be understood to get the loan you want. Carefully thinking about what might adversely affect your home loan can save you from a lot of hassles like irregularities in payment of installments, unpaid balance on credit cards etc.  Applying for a loan for home can be very stressing and therefore, after carefully analyzing your financial position and credit history should one consider applying for a home loan. Below are some of the do's and don'ts that must be followed to make the home loan process smoother.

Dos

• All the loan and debt payments should be made on time to keep your credit history clean. Not adhering to this rule deliberately reduces the credit score. This credit score determines what amount of home loan you will get if you manage to get one.
• Credit card payments can be missed but payments of installments of other mortgages like auto loan should be prioritized. It shows that you pay installments on time. After looking at the performance of similar mortgage loans, the credit scoring system will assign you the score. Credit card payments can be made later as they have fluctuating balances.
• To avoid raising any red flag, your credit card transactions should be normal like before and should not be stopped immediately.
• Any inconsistencies, inaccuracy and missing information should be removed from the credit reports to make it clean of negative data.
• Unpaid balance in credit cards should be paid off to the point that  balance ratio becomes less than 30%.

Don'ts

• Loan approval process can be impacted by your job stability. If you are constantly changing jobs and changing positioning in a company it might hurt the approval of your home loan.
• Any major purchases like car, lines of credit for furniture, expensive gadgets should be avoided. This also impacts your credit score and hamper your chances to get your loan approved.
• Purchase of clothes for family should be limited. Instead of buying clothes at every occasion, they can be bought at one or two occasions.
• A new credit card should not be opened. New credit card adds additional inquiry into your credit score which kills chances of getting a home loan.
• Previous credit card accounts should not be closed either. It has a negative impact on your credit score.
• Some people get a new loan while applying for a home loan. It looks bad with the underwriters and must be avoided.

Home loans applications can be rejected if the borrower doesn't comply with some of the tips mentioned above. No change in number, accounts, address should be made to avoid getting the applications rejected.

We, at Greater Central Texas Federal Credit Union, offer home loans at very low interest rates. Interested individuals can contact us at (254)-690-2274 for more information or visit us at 3305 E. Elms Rd., Killeen, TX  76542.

• Loan Term: A lot of people opt for a longer term loan thinking that they can easily repay the amount. However, with this, they have to pay a greater amount of interest. On the other hand, short term loans can help you save thousands of dollars on your interest payments but requires a much higher monthly repayments to be made. If you have sufficient funds to pay off the loan easily, consider going for a loan with an optimum term and easy monthly installments.
• Interest Rate: Mainly, credit unions offer two types of interest rates to the borrowers, fixed and variable. In the former one, the rate of interest and monthly repayments remain fixed throughout the loan tenure. In the latter option, the interest fluctuates as per the current market rates and so does the amount that you have to pay. It is advisable that you choose a fixed rate for a specific term and switch over to variable when the market rates are low. 
• Extra Fees: Besides the interest rates, you must also check out any additional fees or charges levied by the lender. These may include the application fees, lender’s mortgage insurance, valuation fees, break fee, penalty for late payments etc. All these can make substantial changes to your monthly repayments. 
• Additional Features: Make sure you clear all your doubts before signing your home loan contract. Ask your credit union if they offer redraw facility and if the loan is portable. This will help you to transfer your home loan to another property without having to carry out the entire process all over again. You should also ask if they offer any discounts for the repayments.