If You Don’t Buy the Home, Do You Lose Your Deposit?

“Hi Gary, I’ll be buying a San Diego home within the next few months. I’ve never bought a house before, so please excuse me if this is a dumb question. If I make an offer and it gets accepted, but I end up not buying the house, do I lose my deposit?” Answer: As you’ve
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Why Banks Prefer to Sell to Owner-Occupants

“I’ve been told that banks prefer to sell their foreclosures to owner occupant buyers. Is that true and why? I’m strictly an investor, so what’s the downside of just saying I’m going to live in the property?” Answer: That’s a lot of questions. I’ll answer them one at a time: 1. Do banks prefer to
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Viewing a San Diego Home via Open House

“We’d like to see your house on Denver Street. Do you know when the next open house is?” Answer: That Clairemont home sold in about 10 days on the market. But let me address something. Many people really want to see a home and wait for an open house to see it. However, the majority
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Making Your Highest and Best Offer

“Hi Gary. We and a couple of other people made offers on a home at the same time. Now the seller is asking for our highest/best, which I guess means for us to offer our highest price. I don’t want to get in a bidding war and am thinking of dropping out. What do you
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Buying a House While Doing a Loan Mod

“Hi Gary. I bought a San Diego home a few years ago worth $400K and put a $80K down payment. Right now I’m trying for a modification and still waiting for their decision. …My question is can we still buy a house that is much lower than our current home but one that we can
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Are Tax Assessors’ Home Valuations Accurate?

“In 2005 I bought a house in PB worth $700K. …I just received the property appraisal from the tax assessor and the current value of my house is now down to $488K…” Answer: Let me stop you right there. The tax assessor’s assessment of your Pacific Beach home is not necessarily the value. In fact,
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Buying a San Diego Home From an Auction Site

“I keep seeing these ads for an auction company. I went on their sites and the opening bids are very low compared to what the homes previously sold for. What do you think of buying a San Diego home from an auction site?” Answer: I’m not going to call it a scam. Let’s just say
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Short Sales: To Buy or Not to Buy?

“I hear a lot about short sales. Do you recommend buying them or avoiding them entirely?” Answer: Great question. And like many questions, the answer is “it depends.” In this case it depends on the short sale particulars: – How many loans is the seller going short on? – Does the listing agent seem to
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Is It Hard to Get a Loan on a Fixer-Upper?

“Question. I want to buy a fixer upper house so I can fix and sell it for a profit (hopefully!). Is there any difficulty getting a loan on a fixer?” Answer: Great question. If a home is in poor condition, you may have trouble getting a conventional loan. (An FHA or VA loan would be
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What Exactly Is a Homestead?

“We’ve never bought a home before and I heard it’s a good idea to get a homestead on the house. Can you explain what a homestead is?” Answer: A homestead exemption protects some or all of your equity from unsecured creditors. There are two kinds of homestead exemptions: automatic and declared. Both have similar protections,
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