1. Decide what you can afford to pay every month for your Portland mortgage. The general rule of thumb is that you can afford between 2 and 3 times your gross income.

2. Create your home wish list. Once you have everything you want, prioritize them.

3. Know where you want to live. put together a list of 3 or 4 neighborhoods you would be happy living in, and remember to take into account things like schools, parks, growth plans and general safety.

4. Begin saving. Do you have enough money to both qualify for your Portland home loan and put money down for a down payment? Ideally, it is good to have 20% of the purchase price saved as a down payment on the house. Also, don’t forget to factor in closing costs. Your closing cost, which include taxes, title/attorney’s fees, transfer/recording fees etc ? often come out to around 2 to 7 percent of the price of the home.

5. Get your credit in order. Obtain a copy of your credit report to make sure it is accurate and to correct any errors immediately. Your credit report is your history of all your credit, bad debts, late payments and delinquencies.

6. Establish your mortgage qualifications. How much do you qualify to borrow? Also, explore different loan options ? such as 30-year or 15-year fixed mortgages or Adjustable Rate Mortgages (ARMs) ? and then figure out what is best for you.

7. Get a pre-approval. Organize all the paper work you’ll need for your Portland mortgage lender to be able to give you a loan pre-approval. Some items you’ll probably need include W-2s, your last couple of pay-stubs, bank statements for the past two months as well as your account numbers.

8. Weigh other sources of help with a down payment. You could possibly qualify for some down payment assistance programs or other special mortgage programs. It would be worthwhile to check with your local government and/or state agencies to see about these kinds of programs. If you have money saved in an IRA account, you wouldn’t have to pay an early withdrawal penalty if you’re using the money to buy your first home.

9. Figure out the total cost of Portland homeownership. This total cost included property taxes, insurance, utilities, association fees and maintenance.

10. Get yourself a good Portland Realtor. Some first time buyers opt to try to do the deal alone rather than getting an agent. Why even bother? A Realtor is there to represent you and to be certain you get a good and fair deal. Plus, as a buyer, it’s not going to cost you anything to have them work for you.