Are you a first time home buyer?  If so, this info is for you.  Even if you aren’t, perhaps you know someone that will benefit from this info so please read on.  Every year

California puts away a couple of billion dollars to make it easier for first time home buyer’s to get their first home.  This combined with several Santa Clara County financial aid programs for first time home buyers means that if you qualify, you can get low or no interest rate loans for down payments and closing costs and you don’t have to pay them back until you sell the home. Plus, the CalHFA loan program for first time home buyers is a great program allowing a buyer to get their first home with a lower than normal interest rate even if they have marginal credit scores.  The CalHFA program allows a home buyers to purchase a home up to $673,000 which can get you a pretty decent home.  This combined with the fact that you may not need any money as a down payment or at worst, a small down payment, can help a first time home buyer to get into their home easier than any other way I know.OK, you may be thinking that you aren’t a first time home buyer, and maybe so but for the purposes of this program, you would qualify if it has been 3 years or more since you have owned a personal residence, even if you currently own rental property or land.  Not bad eh?In my experience, the program is ideal for a young couple currently renting and trying to save up money to buy a home.  They may be renting a 2 bedroom condo or apt and paying $1700 a month or so.  With this program, I could find them a condo to buy with effective payments not far from what they pay now and they can enjoy the benefits of increasing home equity instead of watching home prices keep going higher as they try to get a down payment together.

If you or someone you know would be interested in this program, please contact me to see if you qualify.  Hint, it is easier to qualify then you think.  You can’t make too much money and you can’t have horrible credit but other than that, you have a great chance of fitting in this program. 

Oh, and if you are a teacher or staff working at a qualified school, there is even more money available to help you.  Don’t let this opportunity go away. Call me today to get more info.

“Congress is so strange. A man gets up to speak and says nothing. Nobody listens - and then everybody disagrees.”  Boris Marshalov

Today I want to talk about the importance of finding a realtor you can trust and will do a great job representing you.  Too often I have found that a buyer almost randomly picked a realtor to help them buy a home. Sometimes, the sales agent has an active license but doesn’t really work as an active agent. Sometimes they are an active agent but not too intelligent about what they are doing. I really don’t understand why people chose to use their cousin’s friend Billy Bob or Sally from their church without asking for credentials.  Would you go to a doctor for surgery without knowing if they have ever done surgery before? Or maybe they have done surgery for an ingrown toenail but not the brain surgery you are contemplating having.

OK, I know, real estate isn’t brain surgery.  But, if you don’t use someone that will represent you well, you can lose your shirt or a pair of socks or something….. Wait, the analogy is breaking down and getting mixed.  Let me step back and be more specific.  An inexperienced real estate person can cost you six ways (maybe more).

1	You may pay too much for the house (poor knowledge of the market and/or poor negotiating skills.)
2	Your realtor may not prepare the contract well having you pay for things that the seller should pay for.
3	You may end up with a very poor choice of a home and your real estate person could have given you better advice so that you didn’t end up owning a “Money Pit” (see the movie with Tom Hanks and Shelly Long circa 1986.)
4	You have lost your deposit because you didn’t understand the purchase process and your real estate agent didn’t properly cover your behind.
5	Your loan sucks and your realtor didn’t tell you that you have been mauled by your lender. Maybe he can’t tell a good loan from a bag of steer poop.
6	Your real estate agent didn’t tell you to get inspections and later you find a small lake under your home that makes Pirates of the Caribbean look like ride at Disney Land…. Oh wait, I guess it is.  You get the picture.

I think this submission is getting a bit long in the tooth so I will continue later with the top ten list of things to find out when selecting an agent to help you buy a home. As always, constructive comments are welcome.  -Steve Kent

I recently was invited to be on this local Real Estate TV Show and thought I would share this with you.  The host of this show is Dan Lawson of Lawson and Associates. Dan owns and runs one of the top independent mortgage brokerages in the area. 

Click on the image below to go to this movie.

Dost thou love life? Then do not squander time; for that’s the stuff life is made of.
  Benjamin Franklin

Today, I am going to talk about how to shop for money.  Like most things you shop for, the more time you spend getting familiar with the product and the seller in this case the lending process, your credit scores, the types of loans available and rates, the better.  As you will soon learn, it isn’t just about the rates as you need to understand a few other things too.  One of the big things I tell my clients is that home sellers are savvier now then ever and they are looking at your offer in much more detail including determining who your lender is. 

As I write this today, we are in an unusual market. In certain areas such as Cupertino and Saratoga, there isn’t much inventory and good properties are selling fast with multiple offers.  In other areas like South San Jose and Alum Rock, inventory is growing and it is taking longer to get an offer. 

When faced with multiple offers, I have been extraordinarily successful.  Why? Partly because my buyers almost always are qualified by a known and reputable lender.  Which brings me to one of my big points, work with well established and reputable lenders.  There are many reasons to do so but the example above is a good one.  The sellers and the seller’s agent will put more weight on your offer if they believe the lender is solid. 

And then there are the nightmares.  Imagine removing your loan contingencies and exposing your full deposit as “At Risk” and them learning that what you thought was a solid loan evaporated and now you are scrambling to find another lender that can step up and has a loan package that you can afford.  I have seen this last scenario more often than once.  It is all too common that a buyer will be pre-approved for a loan based on little or no thought.  Later when the buyer has spent hundreds of dollars on appraisals and inspection reports and is in the last few days before contingencies are to be removed only to find that his solid loan doesn’t exist.  It is hard to scramble from a position of weakness when you have only days to find an alternate loan.

Summing it up: Use a reputable lender that has a reputation of being solid. It will make a difference on your offer and will make for a smooth transaction.