Once you decide to proceed with homeownership, you’ll need to prepare to get a mortgage. You can get a mortgage from many different sources, like mortgage banking companies, commercial banks, community banks, credit unions, and other financial institutions. Mortgage brokers may be a source of information about different mortgage products available from a variety of sources.
Some places to start getting information include:
- Your own financial institution. Sometimes financial institutions can offer better mortgage terms to current customers.
- Real estate professionals
- Relatives, friends, and co-workers who own a home
- Homeownership education providers
- Your local newspaper, telephone book, or the Internet
- Churches or places of worship
- Employers
- Freddie Mac’s homebuyer education website, available in English and Spanish:
Your Route to Homeownership (www.FreddieMac.com/homebuyer)
El Camino a su Propia Casa (www.FreddieMac.com/homeownership/espanol) - National Association of Hispanic Real Estate Professionals (NAHREP) Web site,
(http://www.realestateespanol.com/) available in English and Spanish.
Additional Resources
City and state housing agencies and nonprofit organizations can refer you to special programs in your area designed to help low-income homebuyers including:
- NeighborWorks® America (http://www.nw.org/)
- National Council of La Raza NCLR (http://www.nclr.org/)
- National Puerto Rican Coalition NPRC (http://www.bateylink.org/)
- Habitat for Humanity (http://www.habitat.org/)
- ACORN (http://www.acorn.org/)
- National Urban League (http://www.nul.org/)
- The Enterprise Foundation (http://www.enterprisefoundation.org/)
- National Foundation for Credit Counseling, which now includes Consumer Credit Counseling Services (CCCS) agencies (http://www.nfcc.org/)
- Local Initiatives Support Corporation LISC (http://www.liscnet.org/)
- U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development HUD (http://www.hud.gov/Homeownership education providers
- Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation FDIC, which includes Money Smart (http://www.fdic.gov/)
- National Association of Real Estate Brokers NAREB (http://www.nareb.com/)
- Asian Real Estate Association of America AREAA (http://www.areaa.org/)
- National Association of Realtors nar (http://www.realtor.org/)
