Category Archives: Step By Step

Finding a San Diego mortgage broker or lender was no easy task. Go to the San Diego housing commission website you will find a list of about 100 or so mortgage brokers and I was completely overwhelmed when I saw that list.  See what I mean? I called a few of them and they were all very arrogant and rude and would not answer any of my questions. I had researched mortgages thoroughly and knew what I wanted. They said things like “we ask the questions here and we are not going to help you at all unless you give us your name, social security number proof of income etc. etc.” My competitive nature came up and I just refused to talk to any of them further.   Tip: Do not ever fork over your social security number this early in the process. This will harm your credit score if not done correctly.   The timing of when you do this DOES matter in how much you pay on your loan. You stand to lose thousands if not done correctly. Do not let anyone bully you into forking over your social security number, I don’t care how awesome they sound; not at this stage of the process. Finding a San Diego mortgage broker who is worth their salt would never ask you to fork over you social security number this early in the process. I put all of their email addresses in one email with my required questions and criteria for dealing with them and sent a blast to all 100 of them. I was now in control of the entire finding a San Diego mortgage broker process. I did it my way! Only 15 or so of that 100 responded. Of that 15 only 2 would even consider my...
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San Diego first time home buyer down payment assistance may not come in the form you think it will. After you have decided on a mortgage broker, you have to realize that this first time San Diego homebuyer program covers the second loan, third loan, and sometimes fourth loan. Down payment assistance does not cover the first loan. The first loan, the biggest loan, referred to as the primary loan, is not given or overseen by the San Diego Housing Commission like the other loans. That loan will be a tough one to get at a good rate depending on your situation. This primary loan has nothing to do with the San Diego Housing Commission other than they want to know that you have a been approved for a loan  with an amount high enough for them to add their funds to pay for your new home. Their down payment assistance will cover the gap between the highest amount of your primary loan and what dollar amount you need to purchase the home. Down payment assistance is not just one loan. Being self-employed it was very hard for me to get a good rate on that loan. Even with a very high credit score of 760, the lowest mortgage I could get at the time was a 6.75%. I was eventually able to get that lowered to a 4.62% through refinancing. The down payment assistance rates stay locked at the deferred payment rate of 3% for the life of the loans. Get that credit score as high as you can. Of course you have already been through Linton’s “know how credit works” class and he has got you well above 700 right? If not call me right now at (619) 886.1826 and I’ll get you in touch with him. Please try the...
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Ok guys. Get ready to show your financial underwear.  The mortgage person asked us for lots of documents that we have shared with no one before. Profit loss statements for the year, proof of income, bank statements, past bank records, employee pay stubs, past tax returns, investment statements, all sorts of documents. We felt really as if the underwriters were staring at us in our underwear. So get ready to show your financial underwear.   There are really no financial secrets that you can hide and successfully to get into the first San Diego first time homebuyer program. Any investments that you have, any money that may have been gifted to you through inheritance, they want to see everything. So get ready to show your financial underwear. What is their goal? It seems the objective of this humiliating process is to make sure that you meet their requirements for income versus financial obligations. This is not only a protection of their investment in you but also a protection for you as a future homeowner. The last thing we want to do is become obligated to pay for a home that we cannot afford. This process helps protect us from ourselves in many cases. Emotions run high at times like this and our better judgement can be more easily compromised. If you look at the literally thousands of foreclosures that happened in San Diego over the past 7 years, one thing I can guarantee; the majority of those folks never went through the first time home buyer program in San Diego.   It would have saved them from countless amounts of heartache and stress. Now that we’re in our home looking back, it seems fair to hand over all of our personal financial information if they were going to loan us so much money;...
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  You can receive much more of your home purchase cost in down payment assistance than you think. You can receive larger down payment assistance which amounts to more of your home purchase cost than you first imagined. The max is usally 25%. We received 33%. There are certain programs within the San Diego Housing commission structure that gave us much more money than we thought we would get initially. Call me for my secret way to access these funds. The key is that working with a realtor and a mortgage lender that knows the San Diego first time home buyer process proves invaluable to you. You may feel attached to your realtor or may be swayed by the amount of properties they have sold. The question you need to ask them is how of many those fine people are first time home buyers that received the down payment assistance from the San Diego Housing Commission programs like the DCCA. Please reach out to me if you would like to work with a Realtor that is thoroughly familiar with the process or who has actually used this process to purchase their own home. Can you imagine leaving upwards of $20,000 on the table because you used the wrong Realtor? Ask around. There are plenty of folks who live with this reality every day. Not us, and hopefully not you. They gave us 7% that we never have to pay back. That’s more of your home purchase cost towards the amount of down payment assistance. They then gave us another large loan with a 0% interest rate that could be used to fix up the house.  There are secret strategies that have to be done correctly to unlock these funds. More of your home purchase cost percentage of the down payment can be...
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Ok guys, its time to get cleared to go San Diego home shopping. If you use a mortgage specialist that is familiar with the first time home buyer down payment assistance program; you will know very shortly if you qualify with the San Diego housing commission or not. The underwriters there are very thorough, probably more thorough than the underwriters for your first loan. The key is having a mortgage lender that is not just on the San Diego Housing Commission list but one who works often with first time home buyers through the program.  They are abreast of the changes. They know what questions to ask both you and the housing commission. If something gets derailed it is usually easy to fix because they know what they are doing. I can help you narrow your decision quickly as we were able to work with a person that met our high criteria. I’m happy to help you find a person that will work with your needs and preferences as well as have your best interest at heart. Time to get cleared to go San Diego home shopping. A good mortgage specialist will let you know if your credit needs to be higher, if your income statements need to be more accurate, or you need to show more proof of what you claim. Whatever they ask you please do it.  If you want to get cleared to go San Diego home shopping you will. They may ask you to write letters or get certain documents from your job or from the bank to forward to the housing commission to approve your first time home buyer down payment assistance. I can help you write those letters. Call me at (619) 886-1826 or email me below. Our mortgage specialist sent our package to...
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To get  the most money for down payment assistance you have to focus on certain neighborhoods. The ratio of modest prices to low crime to convenient location vary wildly in San Diego.  The first time San Diego first time homebuyer program has the best benefit for those who buy homes in certain neighborhoods. Some of the best deals to be found for first time home buyers are in the cities of Santee California, El Cajon California, Chula Vista California, Escondido California, La Mesa California, National City California, Carlsbad California, Encinitas, and of course San Diego. You will probably make your decision on where to buy the house when it comes to looking at the criteria that is best suited for your family. You want to figure out things like commute time to your place of employment. That would include heavy traffic hours normally between 7:30 AM to 9:30 AM and 3:30 PM to 6:30 PM. If your employment is in north county San Diego or the north part of San Diego, then homes in the City Of Sandiego, Carlsbad, Encinitas, or  Escondido may be your best choice. If you find employment towards the east part of San Diego those are very easily reachable from Santee, El Cajon and north eastern part of Chula Vista.  If you find employment in the south part of San Diego you’re looking at Chula Vista or National City being your best bets to look for your first home. Besides employment you definitely want to look at the crime rates for each of the areas being mindful that a high crime rate in association with a beach community normally involves young people over drinking. Here are some areas that you might avoid. The Encanto area, Barrio Logan, City Heights area are principally the highest crime rates in relation to a...
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The home must be approved for the first time homebuyers down payment assistance to go through. One big thing in order for any first time homebuyers down payment assistance to go through, the home you want must be acceptable to the program. There is verbage in the SDHC and DCCA paperwork that says the prospected home must pass certain criteria. What criteria? (Please see San Diego Housing Commission documentation for a complete current list. This list is from what I can remember from my memory and is only to be used as  guideline of what to look for.  The SDHC rental inspection checklist may be a good resource for you as it gives an idea of some of the things they may look for.) Structure must be sound – No cracked slabs, cracked foundations, wall structures in disrepair, no exposed plumbing, no exposed electricity just to name a few. Safety hazards must be contained – No exposed asbestos, water heater tank must be secured for earth quakes, fire hazards removed, no broken floor tiles, no exposed electrical wires, and no plumbing exposed. Additions must have permits – All extra room additions must be permitted properly with the city of San Diego. These requirements are a tremendous protection and benefit for first time homebuyers down payment assistance to go through. Can you imagine if you bought a house on your own, but did not have enough experience to know the reason the house had such a low price was because the foundation slab was cracked? That would have been a $20,000 – $30,000 mistake. There are many houses that seem like steals in San Diego, but the red flag is how long they have been on the market. Anything over 7 days on the market is not a steal. Red flags should go...
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There is Essential and Highly Recommended reading for San Diego first time home buyers before you decide on which home to buy. Remember that although you are excited and relieved to have been approved to go home shopping there are a lot of mistakes that you can still make. You are about to make the largest purchase of your life and there are many greedy people ready to take advantage of your high emotional state combined with lack of experience. So put a little ice on it and calm yourself down before you spend $10,000 more that you have to. Essential and Highly Recommended reading for San Diego first time home buyers before you decide on which home to buy is required because you know so very little about mortgages and home buying. We were the same way. I mention these books for those who haven’t called me; if you had of called me you would have used the correct HONEST loan officer and would have received these books from me as a gift in most cases. But since you didn’t call me, I will still help you after the fact. No doubt you will see the mistakes you made in short order of reading the first chapters of these books. Its not too late to change mortgage people or realtors. You haven’t lost much other then time at this point so please order these books today and from now on listen to my advice. Why? It’s quite simple. I have been through this process before, have been successful at it, and you haven’t. I don’t have an angle. If I can help you I will. Just call or email me below. I’ll answer or direct you to the best answers available on anything to do with San Diego first time...
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What we did to get our offer accepted in a hostile competitive San Diego Realestate market may seem daunting for a San Diego first time homebuyer, but have no fear. If we could do it, almost anyone can. We put in literally 40 plus offers on homes only to be beat out by bids tens of thousands of dollars higher than what we offered. Investors and cash buyers ate us alive. It was discouraging to the point of tears but eventually we found a way to get our offer accepted in a hostile competitive San Diego Realestate market. It wasn’t until we accidentally stumbled upon one secret that got us to the top of the big pile and locked in with the contract of the dream home we eventually purchased. What we did to get our offer accepted in a hostile competitive San Diego Realestate market may seem daunting for a San Diego first time homebuyer, but have no fear.   It is a very complex process that requires a lot of preparation. But when executed properly and the timing is right, you can get your offer accepted in the most competitive market. Remember as a San Diego first time homebuyer you have a complex long process that is unfamiliar to the seller’s agent, and you are going to get competition from high dollar depositors or all-cash offers from investors that view you as a bug on the windshield. I remember distinctly looking at a home when in walks a wealthy person that had no qualms about speaking in a loud voice of how his all cash offer and very high bid offer needs to be accepted verbally now and all the others offers need not to be considered while looking at me sideways across the room. We were totally...
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Choosing a title company that won’t screw up your purchase with the San Diego housing commission is a very short list. The problem is that volume is the only thing that matters for most title companies. Trust me, you don’t want to have a volume minded title company handling your title with the San Diego Housing Commission. Why? The San Diego Housing Commission is very thorough but not the fastest organization in the world. Also remember your down payment assistance will be in the form of multiple loans which have a repayment order of things should you God forbid have to default on one or more of your loans. The wording has to be just right on the title and any future subordination clauses.  If your title company screws this up your deal could be de-railed. Escrow will not close unless your paperwork is totally complete. This is the reason why it is so important that you are choosing a title company that won’t screw up your purchase with the San Diego housing commission.   Choosing a title company that won’t screw up your purchase with the San Diego housing commission is a very short list.   This info will be in my new book. San Diego First Time Home Buyer Secrets. Pre-order...
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