If you have considered buying a home but you aren’t sure how much house you can afford, here is a suggestion. 
Choose a financial institution that you trust and have them do a preapproval. It prepares you for when you really are ready to make a serious offer on a home, and many real estate agents ask you to obtain one so they know you are serious about buying. The main thing, though, is that it gives you an idea of how much you can afford given your current circumstances. Consider buying a home that costs $20000.00 to $30000.00 less than what you are preapproved for. The result: You will be less likely to find yourself financially stressed down the road should your circumstances change, and you will save a ton of money that you would otherwise have spent on mortgage interest, not to mention higher property taxes, utilities, and maintenance. Most people don’t regret making the decision to choose a less expensive home and with the economy the way it is right now I don’t think there are too many people saying they wished they had bought bigger homes. If you choose to use a real estate agent to help you find the right home, and you are planning to pay less than your preapproved amount, you can ask your financial institution to mark your preapproval down to a lower amount so that your real estate agent is less likely to try to pressure you to spend more than you would like. This seemed to work well for us. Our real estate agent never knew the amount we really were preapproved for so we felt no pressure from him to pay more than we wanted to.
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Recently with the prime rate being so low, my husband and I decided to change our mortgage from a fixed rate to a variable rate. We still had about 3.5 years remaining on our existing mortgage so we were subject to some hefty penalties. I wouldn’t necessarily recommend doing what we did, although we do hope to recover our penalties and at least save some money in the process. However, if you are planning on buying a home in the near future, you may want to consider choosing a variable rate while the rates are low and then you can always fix the rate later when the prime rate goes up. Whatever you decide, don’t rule out the possibility of a variable rate. Statistics indicate that more than 85% of people who have variable rate mortgages save money. When you visit your mortgage lender, be sure to ask about their variable rate mortgage options. It is better to be fully informed of your options in the beginning rather than wish you had later.
Maintaining a high credit score is important if you are planning to use debt to purchase a home or vehicle. 
The higher your score, the better your interest rate will be which will result in significant savings. Below are some tips to follow if you want to boost your credit score.
1. Avoid using a P.O. Box because it makes credit bureaus think that you either lost your home or that you are the victim of identity theft.
2. Shred your financial statements or anything that contains any of your financial information to prevent thieves from stealing your identity.
3. Pay all of your bills on time. If you are late on one vehicle loan or credit card payment your other lenders may jack up your interest rates.
Most if not all financial institutions now offer a form of online banking; allowing you to pay bills, transfer funds between accounts, and more. Check to see if your financial institutions charge you any fees related to doing transactions online. If not, I would highly recommend you take advantage of it. Online Banking saves you time, energy, and, you guessed it, money. Paying your bills online will ensure that your bills will be paid quickly without having the chance of your payment getting lost in the mail. You will save on postage, and you will not have to order more checks. Simple transactions such as transfers between accounts can now be done with a click of a button rather than having to visit a branch or go to an ATM machine. An additional benefit is that online banking allows you to check your balance anytime and helps you to track your purchases. Rather than waiting for monthly statements to come in the mail you can be fully aware of what’s happening in your accounts throughout the month. This is a comforting thought considering how much fraud is taking place nowadays. Give online banking a try. You won’t regret it.