Bad credit is going to have a huge impact on your life and this will become very obvious when you apply for a mortgage. There are lenders who will give mortgages to people no matter how bad their credit is but you can be sure that you will have to pay substantially more for them.
The impact that bad credit has on your mortgage rates is huge, so you should try to avoid having one. In large part the banks are going to use your credit rate to decide on what they will charge in interest. This will be quite a bit higher if you have bad credit. Don't underestimate the impact that this has on the amount that you will have to pay. A lot of people look at and think that they are only paying an extra couple of percent because of their bad credit so it is no big deal. In reality it is a huge deal because of the amount that you are borrowing and length of time it will take you to pay it off. The longer the loan is for the bigger impact a higher rate will have and this really becomes obvious with your mortgage.
Keep in mind that it is not just the interest rate that will be higher if you have bad credit. There are other fees that come with getting a mortgage and you can expect these to be higher as well. The main reason for this is that you will have fewer options when it comes to where you get your loan. Normally borrowers can keep these fees down by shopping around to see which lenders will charge them the least. When you have bad credit however you will have far fewer lenders willing to offer you a loan which means you will have fewer options when you shop around. The result is that you can expect to pay quite a bit more.
If you have bad credit when you apply for a mortgage you also have to be very careful of predatory lenders. These are companies who will take advantage of the fact that you have bad credit and few options for getting a mortgage and offer you terms that are really bad. The worst of these is that prepayment penalty will be excessively high. This will make it impossible for you to refinance down the road when your credit is better, ensuring that you will continue to pay the higher rate.
If you do have bad credit it is a good idea to try to fix it as best you can before you start looking for a mortgage. There are some things that you can do to improve it fairly quickly. Even a small improvement in your credit can really help you to get a better deal on your mortgage. That being said it would still be better to wait a couple of years and really get your credit situation sorted out before you look to buy a house.