Are you ready to take the next step and buy a house, but don’t know where to start? You’re in luck! Lauren Wilson, a licensed real estate agent, is here to tell you some basics such as mortgage pre-approvals and down payments. Before you even start to look at houses, you want to get a mortgage pre-approval, which is essentially a mortgage application. A lender needs to look at your finances to determine how much money you can borrow to buy a house.

This is an essential step to give the lender an idea about how much debt you can responsibly take on, and with the Rocket Mortgage app, you can apply for pre-approval right from your phone. You will want to have a pre-approval ready when you start looking for homes because you will not be able to make a serious offer with one. A pre-approval is not the same as your actual mortgage and you will have to do some additional steps to secure that when you do it.

Your down payment is the money you will put down upfront when you are buying your house. Most people have been saving up for this since the most common amount to put down is 20% of the purchase price. Learn more about down-payment percentages in this video and remember, home buying doesn’t need to be stressful. Especially when you go in with strong knowledge of the process and with a partner like Rocket Mortgage.

This article is created by SheKnows for Rocket Mortgage.

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