The One Thing I'd Do Today If I Were Even Loosely Thinking About Buying a Home

Watch the video below for the full walkthrough, or keep reading for the written version.

A while back I promised you a follow-up: what would I actually do today if buying a home was somewhere out on my horizon, not next month, maybe not even next year? I covered three things in the video, and I'm going to run through all three here too. Two of them are the steady, unglamorous stuff. The third one is the golden nugget, so stick around for that.

Credit: Stop Treating Your Report Like a Stranger

A lot of people treat their credit report like it's just some document that exists somewhere out there, not really theirs to manage. When you borrow money, you're making a promise to pay it back, and your credit history is basically the receipt of whether you've kept that promise. Mistakes happen. I've had a late payment show up on my own report because of a miscommunication that had nothing to do with me actually missing a payment. Creditors will often fix genuine errors if you catch them and ask.

If you're in a spot where your credit needs work, there are companies that specialize in reviewing your report and helping clean up old collections or errors through formal dispute letters. That kind of cleanup takes time to fully reflect, so the earlier you start, the better positioned you'll be. There are also faster tools, like a rapid rescore, for more immediate situations. Bottom line: get your credit in check well before you actually need it to perform for you.

Income: Especially If You're Self-Employed

If you're a salaried W-2 employee, this part is pretty painless. You already know what you make, and lenders can verify it easily. Self-employed folks, commissioned employees, and anyone working off 1099 income have more homework to do, because what actually counts toward qualifying is the income that shows up on your tax return, not necessarily what lands in your bank account.

This is exactly why I tell self-employed clients to talk to a loan officer before filing taxes, not after. Sometimes I'll sit down with a client and their CPA and work backward: here's roughly what we need your qualifying income to look like, now let's see what that means for how you file. If the numbers on paper genuinely won't support what you need, there are alternative programs out there, including options that look at bank statements instead of tax returns, built specifically for people whose income doesn't fit the traditional mold.

Now for the Golden Nugget: Get a HELOC Before You Need One

Here's the big one. If I had even a passing thought about buying a home somewhere down the road, today is when I'd go set up a home equity line of credit, a HELOC. Think of it as a second mortgage that gives you access to the equity already sitting in your home, without requiring you to actually touch a dime of it right away.

A lot of homeowners are sitting on serious equity right now and aren't moving because rates don't excite them or they simply don't have to move. That's completely fine. But that equity doesn't have to just sit there doing nothing. Setting up a HELOC costs you nothing to have in place, and you're not charged anything until you actually draw money from it.

Why This Is Such a Smart Safety Net

Say your water heater and your air conditioner both decide to quit in the same week, and then your car breaks down for good measure, because that's apparently how emergencies like to travel in packs. Instead of reaching for a credit card, you draw from your HELOC, make a manageable interest-only payment, and move on with your life. It's a cushion that's already built and waiting, rather than a scramble you have to figure out in the moment.

Here's Where It Gets Really Interesting

Let's say you draw against that HELOC for something like a home emergency and never get around to paying the balance back down. You just keep making the relatively low interest payment month after month. Fast forward a few years, and life shifts. Maybe you and your spouse decide it's time to move up to a bigger place, or downsize, or just get something new.

At that point, whatever you haven't drawn from your HELOC is still sitting there, available. You can use that remaining balance as your down payment on the next house. Once you sell your current home, the proceeds pay off both your original mortgage and the HELOC balance, in one clean sweep. You just funded your next down payment with equity you already had, instead of grinding and saving from scratch for years.

Why "Today" Instead of "Someday"

HELOCs typically come with a limited window during which you're able to draw funds, so getting one set up now, while your equity is strong and you don't urgently need it, gives you the most runway to actually use that flexibility when the timing eventually makes sense. Even if you never draw a single dollar, you've built in access to your own equity for whenever an emergency or an opportunity shows up.

The Bottom Line

Clean up your credit, get your income documentation in order if you're self-employed, and seriously consider setting up a HELOC now if buying is even a distant thought in your mind. None of this requires predicting where the market is headed. It just requires showing up prepared, so that whenever "someday" turns into "now," you're ready to move instead of scrambling.

I'm Jared Halbert, mortgage broker based in Queen Creek, Arizona, serving buyers all across the state. Reach out anytime, that's what I'm here for.