How to Finance a Home With Furniture Included

The majority of Americans take a mortgage to buy their home, or finance their home. While this is standard practice, financing a home with furniture included can be a bit trickier since banks may not want the loan to exceed the value of the home itself. However, with good credit and a bit of effort, financing a home with furniture included can be done.

Get your credit in top shape. If you are going to finance a home and build the cost of furniture into your loan, you'll want a good credit score. Pay down debt and avoid opening new cards in the two years prior to applying for a mortgage to get the best credit score possible. Also, correct inaccuracies on your credit report that might drag your score down.

Get pre-approved before looking for a house. You will want to know how much the bank is going to allow you to borrow before beginning your search. The bank will look at your tax records, income statements and credit score, so be prepared. You'll want to get the offer in writing, or get a good-faith estimate when you get your loan pre-approved.

Look for a house that is "turnkey." Turnkey means the furniture is included with the sale of the house. If a home is turnkey, this will be mentioned in the real estate listing. Make sure you like the furniture when you are buying the home. If you can't find a house that is listed as turnkey, ask the sellers if they'd be willing to also include the furniture on a home that you do like. They may be willing to do so in order to close the sale.

Have the home appraised. In most cases, the banks want the loan-to-value to be at 80, which means they only want you to borrow 80 percent of the appraised value of the home. The appraisal is based on the home alone, not the cost of furniture, so depending on the appraisal, you may need to come up with a down payment to make up the difference in cost, or you may need to take a second mortgage in order to get the rest of the money to pay the seller for the turnkey home.

Close on the loan(s). Once you have found a bank that is willing to lend you the money to buy the turnkey home, you will need to fill out the loan documents, pay any closing costs, provide any relevant information and close on your home loan by signing the mortgage documents.