A good credit score is crucial during the mortgage process, as it usually helps you to get better interest rates and terms, as well as lower fees on your home mortgage loan. Another reason a solid credit score is important is because it’s a direct reflection of your ability to pay, and it informs the lender if there is any possible risk when lending to you.

Curious how your credit score is determined? The credit bureaus determine your credit score based on five different factors. These factors include…

1. Payment History – Are you making your payments on time, or do you have late/missed payments?
2. Length of Credit – How long have you had your accounts and how often are you using them?
3. Amount Owed – How many total accounts do you have, and how much do you owe on each one?
4. New Credit – Have you opened any new accounts recently?
5. Types of Credit – Do you have any debt? This could include credit cards, student loans, auto loans, and more.

So, are there any consequences to closing a credit card? The answer is YES.

If you close a credit card account, you lose the payment history from it that shows lenders your ability to pay. If you make your payments on time, and that history is a positive thing, you’ve now taken that away from lenders to look at, which can impact your overall credit ...

Often times, people decide to rent a property rather than buy because they think they can’t afford to do so. However, with the current state of the market, renters need to realize that maybe they can’t afford NOT to go forth with buying something.

The cost of rent across the nation has grown steadily for nearly a decade, and not only is it expensive, but throwing away money each month does nothing for your long-term wealth. So, how does renting affect you now and also down the line? Here are four reasons you’re missing out by waiting to buy something…

1. You’re Not Building Any Equity by Renting

As many people often say, renting is essentially throwing your money away each month. All you’re doing is helping your landlord pay their mortgage. You’re not getting any of the money you’re spending back. Instead, it’s smarter to buy something that you can build equity in.

2. You’re Missing Out On Historically Low Interest Rates

Mortgage rates are currently the lowest they’ve been in almost three years, and who knows how long that will realistically last for. Therefore, you need to take full advantage now! Even if you just wait a few months, rates could rise again, which would mean a much higher interest rate and monthly mortgage payment. In the end, it could end up costing ...

1. Figure Out Why You Want to Buy a Home

As you probably already know, or have been told before, buying a home will be one of the most important financial decisions you’ll ever make. So, before you get into the home-buying process, you should ask yourself why you want to move forward with it and if it’s what’s best for you and your financial goals. Ultimately, it’s important to determine if it makes sense financially for you.

2. Check Your Credit Score

This is one of the important first steps in the home-buying process. You will want to check your credit score, so that your lender can use it to help determine your loan pricing and how much you could get approved for. There are many different credit reporting agencies that can run your score for you, but you can also have your lender do so. If you have a low credit score, your lender can also help guide you and give advice for trying to get it higher.

3. Figure Out Your Budget

Your first step into figuring out your budget is understanding the maximum loan amount you can qualify for. However, you also need to factor in other expenses that will arise throughout the mortgage process, and even after you’ve purchased a home. Keep in mind, you will still need money for a down payment, closing costs, and any ...

As a home buyer or homeowner in New Jersey, you have a lot of options when it comes to choosing a mortgage company. In fact, the idea of choosing one company out of many can seem overwhelming at first. Where do you even begin? Customer reviews are a great place to start.

Using Customer Reviews to Choose a Mortgage Company

As a mortgage shopper, you have several tools that can help you choose a New Jersey mortgage company. Customer reviews should be at the top of your research list, and for several reasons.

Unbiased reviews from current and previous customers can give you a better sense of how a particular mortgage company operates — and how it treats its customers. That’s something you can’t get from advertisements or other marketing materials, which are typically written by the company itself.

NJ Lenders Has Thousands of Positive Reviews

For nearly 30 years, NJ Lenders Corp. has been meeting the mortgage financing needs of home buyers and homeowners across New Jersey. And in that time we’ve earned a large number of positive reviews from our customers (home buyers and homeowners).

“Earned” is the key word in that last sentence. Good reviews don’t come easy. They have to be earned. A mortgage company earns favorable reviews from its customers by helping them accomplish their home financing goals in a timely fashion and with good communication.

Thousands of our customers have taken the time ...

Mention the phrase “mortgage company,” and many home buyers and homeowners think of the big national and multinational corporations.

But a local New Jersey mortgage company might offer a number of advantages you don’t find on the bigger stage. As a recent Wall Street Journal article points out, a local lender could even help you win a bidding war in a hot real estate market.

‘Going Local’ With Your Mortgage Needs

The “shop local” movement has grown steadily in recent years. These days, mindful consumers shop locally for everything from books to produce. It supports local businesses, and puts money and jobs into the local economy. It’s an economic win-win.

So why not shop locally for a mortgage loan? For home buyers and homeowners in New Jersey, working with a local mortgage company can offer several advantages.

Consumer advocates and housing experts have long encouraged mortgage shoppers to consider local lenders based in their city or state. There are several key advantages to this, and one of them has to do with the sheer size of the “big banks.”

Large, multinational mortgage companies are, well, large. The bigger the company, the more business they do. This means that you, as a borrower, might be one of thousands of customers working your way through the pipeline at a given time. So you might not get the attention or efficiency you would receive from a local ...