Demystifying 3 Myths That Are Keeping You From Buying a Home

By Sponsor in Arts & Entertainment on Mar 25, 2015 5:00AM

This post is brought to you by SoFi.

With the rents in Chicago reaching astronomical heights, you’ve probably spent more time than you’d like to admit stalking real estate sites and picking out furniture for your fantasy future home. So what’s holding you back from pulling the trigger?

There are a lot of legit reasons to be on the fence between paying high rent and buying your first home, but there are also a few common myths that may be holding you back more than they should. Here are three of the big ones:

1. You don’t have the 20% down payment saved
While 20% is often cited as the magic number, there is an alternative - with a SoFi mortgage, you can put as little as 10% down on loans up to $3 million. And with no expensive private mortgage insurance (PMI) required, you could save thousands compared to traditional mortgage options.

2. You have too much student loan (or other) debt
Since debt-to-income ratio (DTI) is a major factor in determining loan amount, large student loan balances can deter even high earners from taking the plunge on a first home. But SoFi’s underwriting approach offers flexible DTI limits- which can allow you to qualify for more financing.

3. You can’t compete with all-cash buyers in your market
In a hot market like Chicago, you’re more likely to encounter all-cash buyers - so making an offer with financing contingencies looks much less attractive by comparison. But because SoFi fully underwrites its borrowers at the pre-approval stage, they can choose to submit offers without contingencies in order to be more competitive.

Want to learn more?
You can get your SoFi mortgage rate by answering just a few short questions, and the rest of the process is just as simple - so you can finally move out of that highway robbery rental and into the home of your dreams.

All loans made by SoFi Lending Corp., NMLS #1121636. Terms and conditions apply. Please see SoFi's eligibility and licensing page for more details.