I'm hoping to purchase a home sometime in 2009.  What are some steps I can take now to help my chances of pre-qualifying for a loan?

I know that one of the best things you can do is not to make any major purchases prior to buying a home. This includes cars. So what is recommended is that you wait to make those purchases until after you have qualified and gotten the home loan. As these types of purchases with effect your credit rating. Another thing I heard about was making sure you know what is on your credit report at this time and what your credit score is. Then you will have the next year to clear up anything that could be a problem when trying to get the loan. I would also use this time to make sure that you are paying off what you can. You do not want to have a lot of revolving credit as they look to the amount of the bills you have when determining if you can handle the mortgage.

Thanks so much for the information.  That totally makes sense.  As far as I know we shouldn't be making any big purchases in the near future, but things come up, I guess.  And we do check our credit report every few months.  Thanks again.

Another of the important aspects is that the your loan amount will be about 75% of the market value of the property.Payback capacity is also verified.