My name is Rebecca. And for almost 20 years, I have been a mortgage banker helping people buy homes.
A lot of those buyers are first time homebuyers with student loans. One misconception that people have is that maybe they need to eliminate that student loan debt before buying a home. I think the risk you run there is not entering the real estate market. Earlier in life, real estate continues to be one of the best ways to build personal wealth. Although it can seem like a huge mountain to climb with student loan debt, keep in mind you have to look past that and look at longer-term things of building equity in real estate even into retirement. By being able to find a way to balance student loans and a mortgage. It helps you to build assets, while also paying down debt.
A lot of people think that it might be impossible because student loan debt just looks so huge. The good thing is that there are multiple options available for homebuyers with student loans, depending on different loan programs and things like that. The thing with student loans is that even if you aren't making payments, so say they're deferred or maybe in forbearance. The thing that we have to keep in mind is that loan guidelines require that we count some sort of payment. Depending on the loan program that we use, we will likely have to count a percentage of the loan balance as payment, or for some loan programs. If you have an income-based repayment plan. The good thing is that we can count that lower payment.
The biggest message that I have is if you have student loan debt, don't lose hope about buying a house. It doesn't have to be an either-or. That's ultimately what I'm here to do, to help you evaluate your options and get the home that you want while still managing your other accounts. So it results in a positive option.
Let me walk you through what options you have and see what possibilities are there.