--- title: "ON KATV: TIPS FOR BUYING DURING A PANDEMIC" description: This year, Covid-19 has put many dreams of home ownership on hold. Arkansans are slowly starting to realize these dreams are still possible. image: https://blog.blrmortgage.com/hubfs/Patrick%20KATV%20Blog%20Pic.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: TIPS FOR BUYING DURING A PANDEMIC Posted by [Blake Montgomery](https://blog.blrmortgage.com/mortgage-newblog/author/blake-montgomery) on Jun 16, 2020 1:44:24 PM ![Blake Montgomery](https://app.hubspot.com/settings/avatar/0d0a314baa0a411b65de2e97005b52d9) - [Tweet](https://twitter.com/share) **Watch Patrick and Alyson to learn more**                   **From the June ****KATV interview with Patrick Dennis and Alyson Courtney** No Headphones.  No Problem.  Please see transcript below. From the station that's on your side this is channel 7 news good morning Arkansas coming up after the break if you're thinking of buying a home next we'll share helpful tips for making that big purchase during a pandemic and welcome back we have Patrick Dennis here a loan officer for bank of Little Rock mortgage joining us and we are talking about buying a home during the pandemic and that can seem a little scary first off Patrick for a lot of people out there but we do know that there are a lot of homes for sale at the moment and people are still buying so give us some tips in terms of what we should be looking for and and what exactly we need to be doing because of this kind of uncertain time so a lot of things have changed in our market but the process still as far as getting pre-approved or or doing a loan has really not we've been moving toward digital online applications things of that nature over the past couple of years and we're just kind of forced to do it a hundred percent now so we're all working from home but most of our stuff is done online from the pre-approval process through getting documents through the closings okay so first off what is the most common mistake that you see first-time homebuyers especially making so so the first mistake is they don't go and get pre-approved we have all this time on our hands we're looking at Zillow we're looking at these big houses what we want and how we want a game room or we want this big yard now because of quarantine what you really have to get an idea of what you qualify for and the way to do that is through getting pre-approved with a qualified mortgage lender and the first step to doing that would be what so your first step would be a you know find out find a good lender give us a call go online get that grim prove already get all your documents in line get yourself set and then we'll review it with you to see what you can actually qualify for but you want to make sure that you're you've got something in your budget as well you mentioned Zillow of course that's a popular place for people to look a lot of people are driving around fall in love with the house this is the house we have to have what may not always be the best mindset to go go into buying a home with definitely not so we do the pre-approval first we find out what you qualify for but that doesn't mean that's in your budget so you want to make sure that you know just because you qualify for it that doesn't mean it's gonna be something that you can pay on a monthly basis and I think if there's something we've learned over the past couple months you want to have a little bit of money on the side you want to be able to fit something in with your credit card bills with your car payments and also think about your lighting your electrical take into account all of all of your payments that you make on a monthly basis there's a lot of money that we get about that you need to be considering okay so if you're in a position to purchase a home right now but still kind of answer uncertain or concerned about the money portion of it all can you not put down the 20% to perhaps save a bit absolutely so there's a myth out there that you need to have 20% down in order to buy a home and that's just not true we have programs out there that are as little as 3% down three and a half percent on an FHA deal there's there's lots of different things to consider though the whole 20% down scenario was to try to avoid private mortgage insurance but there's several ways to do that and do it you can pay it off upfront to to lower that cost over the long run or you can do lender paid private mortgage insurance which avoids it all together and you can still do that with putting less than 20% down to the traditional home loans for a first-time buyer first-time homebuyers is something that a lot of people go in just not really educated about or just not knowing what's out there right so once we get you pre-approved it really gives me a better idea of what kind of options you have for different mortgages it used to be kind of a one-size-fits-all or or even to where you had a conventional or FHA loan nowadays we have several different programs so you have FHA for lower credit scores we're and a half percent down we have rural loans USDA where they're they're kind of based on property eligibility outside the metro area but they're 100% loans with really low rates really low mortgage insurance we have VA loans for deserving veterans again no mortgage insurance on that there's just tons of different options and we also have something called a home ready program I'm ready and home possible which is 3% down first-time homebuyer and the rates are super low in the low threes right now and the mortgage insurance is lower than your average loan as well it really is a good time to look into it at the very least if you're considering buying a home right now and we have a little extra time on our hands I think it's a slower pace right now and buying a home can be overwhelming so you can really get these questions answered and really look for something that fits fits your family and your financial status Patrick before we go if first-time homebuyers have questions out there about buying a home during the pandemic where should they turn yes so give us a call at bank of Little Rock mortgage you can reach us at two one nine ninety one hundred BLR mortgage calm or on facebook twitter just reach out we're here to help any time you need us Patrick Dennis mortgage thank you so much for your time great information as yeah a lot of people may be interested now hearing about those low rates and some more options out there they're out there definitely give us a holler thanks Alison thank you and stick around we've got more good morning that's all right. 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