It is said that when you really want to get to know a person, you must look at their picture. A picture will tell you everything you need to know, even when people will not tell you through their own words. A financial portrait acts much the same way — when you apply for your first home mortgage, lenders will need to have a financial portrait of you in order to make the best decision when it comes to whether or not to approve you for a home loan.  There’s no reason to be upset with the lenders for this — they have to make sure that they are giving everyone the best mortgage terms possible, which in turn means weeding out people that would not repay the loan properly.

Can you clean up your financial image before you apply for a mortgage? Absolutely — you just have to know what to do first. In a nutshell, you will want to make sure that you clean up the unpaid sections of your financial history. This means setting up payment arrangements for bills, as well as having money saved up. You will need to most likely make a down payment that’s much larger than someone that has a better credit rating. This is just standard practice — when your credit situation is less than stellar, you will still need to make sure that you have plenty of other factors that will work in your favor. For example, you may have solid employment that can really speak for you. Remember that lenders are focusing on your ability to repay. So if you have a great job with a good salary, a lender may still approve you for the loan.

If you really want to increase your chances of getting a mortgage, you can always go to a mortgage broker that specializes in working with people that have certain credit problems. This can be the best route after you’ve been turned away by more traditional mortgage brokers. You will still need to read the fine print, so don’t think that you can skip over any steps just because you’ve moved on to a new mortgage broker.

Overall, giving yourself the best financial portrait possible before you apply for a mortgage isn’t difficult at all. With the information in this guide, you should have no problem getting the house of your dreams in virtually no time at all!