“I thought FHA allows you to borrow your down payment. Am I wrong?” Answer: FHA allows the down payment to be a “Gift” from a family member or from a loan against an asset. In fact the family member can pay for everything and the buyer does not have to have any of his/her own

“Gary, my home has been on the market for 4 months and we haven’t received an offer. We’ve had a lot of showings, averaging about 5 per week. We haven’t dropped our price since we listed because the activity has been so good and we thought we’d get an offer. What do you think the

“I don’t want to buy a foreclosure due to all the risks…” Answer: Not sure what risks you’re referring to. It’s true that foreclosures are often in worse condition and banks are exempt from most disclosures. But if you hire a good home inspector to thoroughly check out the home, you should be fine. Use

“Can you borrow the money for the down payment on a home?” Answer: It depends how you borrow the money. You can only borrow from a secured asset: HELOC, car loan, savings account loan, 401-k loan, etc. You can’t take a personal loan that is not secured by an asset of some kind. Automated Notification

“I’m upside down on my home and need to do a short sale. How do you work with people in my situation?” Answer: First, we’ll set up a free phone consultation to determine if you are likely to qualify, and to answer your questions. If that goes well, we’ll give the list of required documents

“Question– What is best way to get my credit score–I have not checked in 20 years.” Answer: Here’s how my favorite lender answers that question: “You can go to www.annualcreditreport.com and get a free credit report from each bureau once a year, but the credit scores are not accurate unless it asks what type of

“Hi Gary. We just bought a new construction home in San Marcos. We’re moving soon and can’t decide if we should sell or rent our home in North Park. It’s worth $575,000 and we owe $319,000 with a monthly payment of $1900. It’ll rent for $2,000 per month, so we’ll have a small positive cash

“I’ve seen some properties say ‘corporate owned’. Does that mean it’s a foreclosure?” Answer: Usually. It typically means it’s a foreclosure, or occasionally if a relocation company has bought someone’s home to facilitate their job transfer or new job. Some banks don’t like us to use “foreclosure” when marketing their properties, but most of those

“I can’t make my house payment and am trying to decide if I want to do a short sale or just let it be foreclosed on. Can you tell me about short sales?” Answer: I’m very experienced in short sales, having done about 200 of them. Qualifying: It’s the opposite of applying for a loan.

“Hi Gary. We’re looking to buy our first home, but we’re hesitant to start working with an agent because we don’t know how their fees work. Do I pay the agent that helps me find a home?” Answer: Great question! I hear that a lot from our clients like you who’ve never bought a home