--- title: "ON KATV: FIRST TIME HOMEBUYERS" description: Thinking about buying your first home? Watch Lee and James to learn more. image: https://blog.blrmortgage.com/hubfs/Lee%20KATV%20pic%203819-1.jpg --- ![blrm_logo-166x45.png](https://blog.blrmortgage.com/hs-fs/hubfs/Mortgage_Site/images/blrm_logo-166x45.png?width=166&name=blrm_logo-166x45.png "blrm_logo-166x45.png") ![logo-rock-mortgage.png](https://blog.blrmortgage.com/hs-fs/hubfs/Mortgage_Site/images/logo-rock-mortgage.png?width=180&name=logo-rock-mortgage.png "logo-rock-mortgage.png") ![blog-bg.jpg](https://blog.blrmortgage.com/hs-fs/hubfs/Mortgage_Site/images/blog-bg.jpg?width=1600&name=blog-bg.jpg "blog-bg.jpg") # NEWS # ON KATV: FIRST TIME HOMEBUYERS Posted by [Blake Montgomery](https://blog.blrmortgage.com/mortgage-newblog/author/blake-montgomery) on Mar 11, 2019 2:37:09 PM ![Blake Montgomery](https://app.hubspot.com/settings/avatar/0d0a314baa0a411b65de2e97005b52d9) - [Tweet](https://twitter.com/share) Thinking about buying your first home? Watch Lee and James to learn more. ![](https://blog.blrmortgage.com/hubfs/Lee%20KATV%20pic%203819.jpg) FROM MARCH KATV INTERVIEW WITH LEE MARIS No headphones? No problem! Read the transcript below:   James: "Welcome back to Good Morning Arkansas, Lee Maris of Bank of Little Rock Mortgage is here this morning to help us navigate the process of buying a home for the first time there's a lot of things that people need to know and you guys have been living our mortgage are really prepared to help people go through that process." Lee: "Yeah we have our own lingo and it's sometimes difficult for the layperson out there to understand what we're talking about you know first and foremost come see us to get pre-approved. I mean we've talked about that every time I'm on here." James: "Yes most important things you can't really do much unless you're pre-approved" Lee: "exactly and Realtors don't want to drive you around town waste their time, your time, unless they know you can get the money." James: "What is the most important factor for a first-time homebuyer to consider?" Lee: "Well there's several things, I mean you know you kinda have to know what your credit score is. You're gonna want to ask what interest rates are, you know down payment options stuff like that. So that's the thing everybody has a different story, you know everybody has a different income, everybody has different credit profile, so it's hard for me just to put it all in one, you know, round peg round hole yeah that's all different." James:"Getting your credit kind of where it needs to be so you can buy home that's also very important as well." Lee: "Probably, if not the most important it's right up there. You know credit scores come from TransUnion, Experian and Equifax the three credit bureaus. I hate to tell people when they're out there and they get on Credit Karma that's probably not the credit score you're gonna see when you come to me." James: "Okay so when you go to get a credit score it may be a little different." Lee: " It is gonna be a little different, yeah. We're gonna grade it are the algorithms they use for a home loan or different than the algorithms they use for a car loan." James: "So that's a very important thing" Lee: "Yes" James: "Does not have the exact credit score you see on those other websites" Lee: "Right because I have people come in all the time I got an 800 and I say yeah let me pull it now you're gonna have a 740 but I mean that's it's still good to keep track of your credit. And credit scores are, you know, are you paying your bills on time, are your credit cards at a good balance and not maxed out and stuff like that." James: "Yeah it's all very important. So what's another important definition you mentioned was being it was being pre-qualified what does this mean how do you go get pre-qualified there" Lee: :Just call us, you know, we're good, we can do it over the phone, you can do it online, you can come in and I suggest most first-time home buyers come in sit down let's do face-to-face because there's a lot of terms and like I descended they don't understand. And you're talking about buying a home in the next couple years after you get married and you probably want to come in and sit down and let's put stuff on paper and  do the math and a lot of times the most important thing is can I afford it. I mean what are you comfortable with paying a month? What's your income, what's your credit, you know, loan to values, of a term on this and that's basically the loan compared to the value of the home you know on them so it's a percentage and the lower the loan to value the less risky the loan. James: "Well hey less risk is always good" Lee: "Yep and that's gonna get you a better rate, etc." James: "So better let's talk about interest rates explain what you mean by straight and it's placed in your decision to purchase a home. Lee: "The interest interest rate or interest, is the cost of money. You know we're not gonna give it to you free and it's based, your interest rate is based on how risky that loan is. You know you've got bad credit and a very small down payment your interest rates gonna be higher it's gonna cost you more to borrow money." James:"Yeah so all right 15 year mortgage 30 year mortgage, what's the difference? Which route should you go?" Lee: "Everybody in America should do a 15 year loan but we're Americans we always want more than then we probably should. So you're paying it off in half the time so a 15 year loan is gonna be a lot more expensive on a monthly basis" James: "right, exactly because you're paying it off in half the time" Lee: "So I would say 75% of people I deal with do a 30-year loan there I wish we can all do 15-year loans." James: "But sometimes it's not realistic" Lee: "Exactly and to afford more house you know you need to probably do a 30-year loan but we have 25 year loans, 20 year loans." James: "To kind of meet in the middle" Lee: "Yeah you can do a 25 year loan" James: "So of course to start this whole process you got to get pre-approved.if people want to do that  where do they go,who do they call where can they find you?" Lee: "They can call our office  at 501-219-9100 or go on our website BLRmortgage.com that's where I'd start" James:  "Yeah I mean it's and you guys want to help people" Lee:"I'm just all about getting you in the best situation you are you're gonna set somebody that propels you  we don't have the old banker mentality, you know, that mean old banker.  I mean we're here to help,  that's how we make a living and keep the lights on so we want to do loans." James: "Yeah absolutely well thanks for coming in this morning, always great tips coming in talking about buying homes" English (auto-generated)     Topics: [mortgage](https://blog.blrmortgage.com/mortgage-newblog/topic/mortgage) [first-time home buyer](https://blog.blrmortgage.com/mortgage-newblog/topic/first-time-home-buyer) [mort](https://blog.blrmortgage.com/mortgage-newblog/topic/mort) [condominium](https://blog.blrmortgage.com/mortgage-newblog/topic/condominium) [On Time Closing](https://blog.blrmortgage.com/mortgage-newblog/topic/on-time-closing) [Low Down Payment](https://blog.blrmortgage.com/mortgage-newblog/topic/low-down-payment) [Mortgage Loans](https://blog.blrmortgage.com/mortgage-newblog/topic/mortgage-loans) [Home Ready](https://blog.blrmortgage.com/mortgage-newblog/topic/home-ready) [Rent or Buy](https://blog.blrmortgage.com/mortgage-newblog/topic/rent-or-buy) [USDA Loans](https://blog.blrmortgage.com/mortgage-newblog/topic/usda-loans) ### Subscribe to Email ### Recent Posts ### Posts by Topic - 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