Will I Qualify?
There are a lot of factors that determine if you qualify for a VA loan, but often, it's a lot easier than you think.
Pre-Qualified versus Pre-Approved
Buying a home can be exciting. You know you want to buy a house, but where should you begin? The ideal place to begin the home buying process is with getting a pre-approval for a home loan.
When you get preapproved for a loan, you will have more than just an estimate of how much home you can afford. A Pre-approval gives you an actual figure of how much you...
VA Myths - Debunked
VA Loan Myths - Debunked
California is home to the most active duty and prior military Veterans of any state and yet, our beautiful state ranks 34th in the percentage of Veterans using their VA.
Here is an example of what this means in numbers. Virginia has 726,740 Veterans and 170,190 active VA loans. In comparison, California has 1,...
Your bank’s reputation is costing you money
You’ve been a member since you joined the military. They did your last car loan in 10 minutes, over the phone, and you never even had to talk to a human. You have your checking, savings, credit cards, investments, and car insurance with them.
You love them. You trust them.
But their reviews on the mortgage side are either 5 stars, or 1 star. Huh???
You’re...
Longer lock, more risk, higher costs
When a bank locks your rate, they’re guessing where the market will be when the lock expires.
If the market goes to crap, they promised you a great rate and have to deal with the change when they sell your loan.
If the market gets better, they can make more money than originally planned when they sell your loan.
You have risk, they have risk. How...
Kyle’s story – You told me to get married and now I don’t qualify?
Kyle was just out of the Naval Academy, young, smart, ready to take on the world. He’d met Jennifer there and they were engaged. Together they moved to San Diego for his initial orders.
Those initial orders were short. Kyle had new orders in 4 months to go to supply school for a year in Georgia. After those, he’d return to San Diego.
Jennifer was going to...
Jack’s story – losing paperwork was just the tip of the iceberg
Jack was a sharp Lieutenant for the Civil Engineering Corps, looking for a condo for himself and his fiancée. He had his own spreadsheets, did tons of research, and knew what he wanted.
They’d been working with the bank he’d used since joining the military. His agent had done deals with that bank before and recommended he talk with us.
He didn’t understand...
How accurate is my Cash To Close estimate?
You can afford the payment, but you don’t want to completely drain your savings account to purchase this house.
Or worse, this is already going to drain your savings account and if the costs come in any higher, the deal might be dead.
So how accurate are those numbers anyway?
It’s called marketing – games ‘other’ lenders play.
Would it surprise you to...
Cross Qualifying – Normal, Legal, Fair?
The listing says you’ll have to be cross qualified with their ‘preferred’ lender before your offer is accepted.
You want the house. But it was a pain gathering all the documentation for the pre-approval you already have. You don’t want to jump through all those hoops again, especially with another credit pull. Especially with someone you don’t know. God...