Gettin approval for loan

[Babek Sandhar]

Hey BP,

I’m hoping someone can help me answer this question.

My goal is to get approval for a loan to get a house in the Bay Area. I would be a first time home buyer & I understand I can get one now, but my belief is that a recession will come and see some type of drop in prices.

I just got a job that’s providing passive income (finally). All of my wealth & savings in the past has derived from investments I made over the last ten years (mostly tech stocks I purchased in 2009-2010 and sold in late 2018).

My credit score is somewhere around ~800. I use my credit card and pay it off in a timely manner. However, I’ve never made any huge purchases (like a car). I may have paid some of my school tuition on credit a few times, but paid it off quick, I can’t recall if I used my credit card or my dads (who helped pay for my school, didn’t want to take a student loan).

A couple questions I want help answering is:

How hard was it to get a loan after the 2008 crisis?

What can I do to continue to build credit?

What’s the additional requirements I’m not considering when trying to get a loan? Assuming I have enough money to put on a down payment (20%)?

Maybe if someone could walk me through what I need to do to be ready to buy if a recession was to occur and credit tightens (which is a cause and effect of recessionary pressures).

My goal is buy during this type of period and I understand that could be difficult as lending practices change during hard times. Thanks!