Tips on Choosing the Lender for You

Getting a loan is a crucial part of the home buying process. Here’s what to look for in a lender.

Purchasing a home is a major life decision, and choosing the right lender to help you through it is absolutely crucial. Today, Steve Hankla from New American Funding and I would like to share a few tips with you on selecting the right one. What should you look for when choosing a lender?

1. Choose a lender that you’re comfortable with. This will most likely be a long process, so it’s important to select a lender that you’re compatible with.

2. Choose a lender that is local to your area. This is important because the Realtors, especially the listing agent, will want to be sure that the lender has a good reputation and that they can process the transaction as smoothly and as quickly as possible.

3. Choose a lender with a fair interest rate. You don’t want to pick the lender with the highest or the lowest interest rate, but you want to make sure that the lender has an interest rate that is competitive with most of the large banks and mortgage companies that you may be shopping with.

If you have any other questions about getting pre-approved for a loan or choosing the right lender, give Steve a call at 562-344-5546 or email him at steve@gotoloanpro.com today. If you have any other questions related to real estate, don’t hesitate to reach out to me as well. We’d be happy to help you!

Settling Your Finances Before Buying a Home

Today Steve Hankla joins us from New American Funding to help answer some questions you might have and give some tips on how to get your financial house in order before you buy a home.  

• How soon should I talk to a lender? About six to 12 months before you plan on actually purchasing and searching for a property. 
• How important is credit score when buying a home? A lot of people assume they have to have high scores, but mortgage lenders like New American Funding will actually go down to a score for as low as 580 for FHA transactions. Of course, if you have a score better than 800, they wouldn’t turn you away either. Remember: the higher the score, the better. 
• What can a lender do to help improve my credit score? After they see your credit, a lender can see where the challenges are and best direct you on what to do to clean up your credit. If you follow some careful instructions, you can pretty much clean it up yourself. 
• How would a past foreclosure or short sale affect my ability to buy a home? There are different programs that allow people to get into a property in a short amount of time (as little as two years for veterans). There are also more conventional products that offer 20% down or more for those who’ve had a short sale within two years. For FHA, if you’ve had a foreclosure you can get into a property after three years. This means many people who suffered during the financial meltdown can now buy a home again.  
• What kind of down payment do I typically need to have? With FHA, the lowest amount is 3.5%. Conventional loans have both 3% and 5% programs available. Veterans don’t need any down payment whatsoever. 

If you have any more questions or would like to start your own pre-approval process, you can reach Steve by phone at 562.344.5546, or email him at Steve@gotoloanpro.com. If you know anyone looking to buy or sell a home, you can reach me at 562.900.9430. Thanks for tuning in, make it a great day.

The Four Biggest Mistakes that Property Owners Make

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I know a lot of people who choose to rent out their properties instead of selling them. Not everyone is cut out to be a landlord, and I sometimes see people making mistakes that can cause a lot of turbulence in the process. I have four tips to help you through this process.

1. Not doing a proper financial check on your applicant: We always recommend obtaining a credit report with FICO scores and eviction checks. We also like to have a pay stub and a bank statement to ensure that the applicant is financially capable of paying for the property.

2. Not knowing the law: Tenants are afforded a bevy of rights, and you need to know when you or your tenants are overstepping your bounds. Consult an attorney if you need to, because these issues can become dicey. Research your local laws as well as national ones.

3. Not maintaining your property: Landlords often don't want to spend any money on their proeprties, but this doesn't make sense to me. It's your biggest investment, so make repairs when necessary. Ideally you can be proactive so that nothing disastrous happens, and tenants appreciate someone who keeps things in working order. You might be surprised at how your relationship will improve if you put more effort into maintaining your property. Yearly inspections are generally something that we recommend.

4. Renting your property for less than it's worth: This seems pretty logical, but a lot of landlords charge less than they should. You don't want to have to pay down the mortgage, that is the job of your tenants. Run a rental analysis in the neighborhood to ensure that you're keeping your rent in line with the market.

As a real estate broker and property manager I take a lot of pride in helping people with their real estate issues. Please don't hesitate to contact me with any questions or comments.

I look forward to speaking with you!

What’s the Danger in Trusting Your Zestimate?

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Today I am going to talk about the difference between online home valuation websites view homes as opposed to how a real estate agent prices the home. I’m sure a lot of you are familiar with sites like Zillow or Trulia and their home valuation services. It can be a useful tool for a general idea of what the market is like, but there is a big difference in how they price your home and how an agent will price your home. 

An online tool, like Zillow’s Zestimate, has no idea what your home looks on the inside. It doesn’t know about any remodels you have done, or what views you have, or other things that could significantly affect your home’s market value. All these sites know are your number of bedrooms, number of bathrooms, your square footage, and its physical location. It doesn’t take into account anything that makes your home unique.

With an agent like myself, our job is to not only look at your home as a physical property, but to determine exactly what the market value of your home is. By being able to look at all the relevant information from your home, including seeing what it looks like from the inside, we can figure out how to maximize the price of your home.

What kinds of things do we do to help increase your home’s value? For starters, we work with a great staging company and have found that staging a home can increase the sale price 6% to 8% over what an unstaged home would sell for. In addition to that, we use a professional photographer to make sure your home looks the best it possibly can when people are browsing online.

These are just a few of the ways we can help you maximize the value of your home. If you would like to get an idea of what we could sell your home for in our current market, just give us a call or send us an email. We look forward to hearing from you!

Are Home Prices in Orange County Rising or Falling?

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Hey everyone, welcome back to our blog. The real estate market is continuing to sizzle here in Southern California.

In LA county, the median sale price went up in the last year. In May 2014, the average was $430,000, while in May 2015, the average rose to $460,000. Here is a link to a graph that shows the median home price in LA County over time. 

While prices were rising, the supply of homes decreased in the last year. In May 2014, we had 4.1 months of inventory. Currently, we have 3.4 months. 

In Orange County, the median sale price also rose in the past year. After being at $575,000 in May 2014, the average home price in Orange County is now $600,000;  Here is a link to a graph that shows the median sale price in Orange County over time. The supply of homes in Orange county dropped slightly, from 3.8 months in May 2014, to 3.1 months in May 2015.

Local job growth, mortgage rates, and availability of homes all look solid. These factors, in addition to slower home appreciation, helped draw buyers. We saw an increase in the volume of homes sold in Orange County of over 10% for April and May of 2015 compared to the same period last year and about 7% in LA County.

The housing market is doing great right now in Orange and LA Counties. In some neighborhoods, we are even having all-out bidding wars on homes. Sometimes, these homes go for hundreds of thousands of dollars over asking price. In fact, we recently had a listing receive 40 offers.

Supply is not even close to keeping up with demand. So if you have been looking to sell your home, no matter the price, we are in a great market to do so. 

If you have any questions for me, feel free to give me a call or send me a quick email. I would love to speak with you!

Top Reasons to love Los Alamitos & Rossmoor

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Hi everyone!  This is Tim Majka with the Tim Majka Real Estate Experts with Keller Williams Coastal Properties serving Long Beach and the greater Los Angeles and Orange County area. 

Today I wanted to go over some reasons to love the city of Los Alamitos and the community of Rossmoor

The first reason is great schools!  The Los Alamitos Unified School District which covers the schools for Los Alamitos, Rossmoor, and Seal Beach offer some of the best schools in California. Some More facts about the Los Alamitos Unified School  District:

• Only District in OC and one of six in the US on the College Board's AP Honor Roll five years in a row

• Three elementary schools in the top 10 in OC

• LAHS ranked #87 (top 1%) in the United States

• Highest college enrollment rate in OC

• Record number of scholar artists and athletes

Because of this, there is always a high demand for homes in the area, especially from folks looking to get their children into the schools.  This keeps property values strong. 

Another reason to move to Los Alamitos is great location. Los Alamitos and Rossmoor are located on the border of LA and Orange County.  This gives you the benefit of being able to tap into everything  LA and Orange County have to offer. For example, if you want to go surfing at Bolsa Chica or hit the mall at South Coast Plaza in Orange County, you're only 30 minutes away.  Additionally, if you want to hit the beaches in the South Bay or see a show at the Hollywood Bowl or a Clippers game or Lakers game in Los Angeles, you are only 45 minutes away

Along with that – living in Los Alamitos and Rossmoor give you the opportunity to tap into 3 major job markets – Long Beach, Orange County, and Los Angeles. 

These are just a few of the reasons that make Los Alamitos and Rossmoor a great place to live.  There are so many more amenities to list here.  If you have any questions about moving here or you would like any more information about the area, please contact me. 

If you know of anyone thinking of moving to Los Alamitos, Rossmoor, or the surrounding areas, we would love to help them find the perfect home.   Thanks for tuning in.

Why You Should Buy Instead of Rent in the L.A. & Orange County Area

Considering Buying? Click here to search all available homes in your area 

Considering Selling? Get a Free Home Evaluation

You may also call me at 562-900-9430 for a FREE home buying or selling consultation to answer any of your real estate questions.

Today we are going to look at a dilemma that many people face at one point in their life: whether to rent or whether to buy a home. In our opinion, buying a home makes more sense than renting, for a number of reasons.

One of the best reasons to buy is that owning a home is a hedge against inflation. When you buy a home with a fixed-rate mortgage, you don't have to worry about your payment changing at all during the life of your loan. You don't get that same guarantee that rent will be the same over that time. Even if rent just went up by 5% per year, your payments would be doubled in just 14 years.

Another thing buying a home does is give you the opportunity to build a nest egg. When you rent, you are paying rent to your landlord and that money is going towards their mortgage. When you own your own home, you are paying off your mortgage every month, and eventually, if you keep making payments, you will own the property free and clear.

These are just a few of the top reasons why many people choose to buy instead of rent. I hope this gave you some valuable information. If any questions come up, feel free to give me a call or send me an email. I look forward to speaking to you!