Mortgage lenders will look at several factors in your financial and personal history. Depending on what the lender finds in your history, you will qualify for different types of loans. Your required monthly payment will also vary in amount, as will the overall term of length of your loan.

It is very important that you read and understand everything on this list. If you follow these rules, things will be much simpler when you attempt to get a large loan for a car or piece of real estate.

Some of the basic factors apply for just about any loan, but are especially important if you are trying to get a mortgage. The big one is, yep, you guessed it-credit.

There are three major consumer reporting companies that offer you a copy of your credit report. This is good to check your credit rating and also to see if they contain any errors.

One way to boost your score is to check if they have any errors, which are relatively common, and have them corrected. Also, pay off any credit card balances and other outstanding bills.

A big sum up front can be counted on to increase the odds of your approval. If you have a less than desirable credit rating, the larger the amount of the down payment, the greater the likelihood of your getting approved.

If your credit is already stellar, that is the ideal situation to be in. To lower your monthly payments, and decrease the time it takes to pay off the loan, you can still put down as much as you can, even if your credit is great.

Above all else, never, ever lie to your lender. If you tell them you are a supervisor of a power plant and they later find out you are a UPS man who has only had the job for 6 months, you will be totally screwed. Just be honest and your lender will do their best to work with you.

Even if you’ve made mistakes in the past, that doesn’t necessarily mean you won’t qualify for a mortgage. Regardless of whether you have good credit or need a bad credit mortgage, you’ll find a variety of mortgage lenders listed at our site that can help.