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7 Tips to Save Your Sanity During the Loan Application Process!

Aug 17th, 2010
by Kathy Rain.
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You may have experienced some level of stress in buying your San Mateo Coastal home due to the very rigorous rules and regulations in the loan process. Or you may be looking into the San Mateo Coastal real estate market and are uneasy about applying for a loan because you don’t quite know where to start! New regulations on loans are sometimes confusing and the process can easily become frustrating, but there’s hope!  Andy Block a Loan and Personal Finance Advisor has come up with 7 Tips to Save Your Sanity during the loan approval process. We’ve listed them for you below!

1. Be expedient and thorough- When initiating a loan, and throughout the loan process, it is imperative to provide complete documentation to your Mortgage Advisor as quickly as possible. For instance, if all pages of the bank statement are requested, it really means all pages. While you and I might not think it’s necessary to include the reconciliation page of the statement, the lenders do. And, when they receive only five of the six pages of said bank statement, the loan process can become inefficient and stalled.

2. Keep detailed financial records- If it is necessary to transfer funds from one account to another or to sell stock for a down payment, keep a detailed paper trail of all transactions, deposits and liquidations. Lenders will request it.

3. Spill the details- Be sure to notify your Mortgage Advisor of any changes to the purchase transaction. Unidentified last minute changes, such as escrow holdbacks, seller credits or termite work can wreak havoc with closing dates.

4. Keep your day job- Lenders always contact your employer just before the loan funds. If you have left that company (quit, moved to a new company or retired), the lender will stop the loan from funding and recording.

5. Know the facts- If you are in the process of divorcing, most lenders will not approve or fund a mortgage loan until the final decree (settlement terms) is recorded.

6. Safeguard your social security number- Talk to your Mortgage Advisor before making any significant credit or purchase decisions. Lenders rely on using credit scores to assist in mortgage credit decisions. Incurring new debt during the loan process increases your debt-to-income ratio and could reduce the amount you can borrow. Each credit inquiry – whether you ultimately make a purchase or not lowers your credit score. The same holds true for pre-approved credit card offers that you receive in the mail; responding to them will result in a credit check.

7. Be available- Be sure to leave a contact phone number with your Mortgage Advisor if you are traveling for business or on vacation. Until all the loan approval conditions are met, you may be required to provide additional documentation or information.

We understand that buying a home is a huge investment! The paper work, hoops to jump through and getting everything you need in order can be a lot to handle. Using these seven tips will help cut down on the stress and will help streamline the process. If you are looking to buy a home on the San Mateo Coast, we can help! We’ve had years of experience and would love to help you find the home of your dreams! There are many great homes in the San Mateo Coastal Area from which to choose. Contact us and we’ll be happy to answer your questions and give you a tour of the homes in the area!

Kathy & Michael Rain
Your San Mateo Coastal Real Estate Experts

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Bay Area’s High-End Housing Market Gaining Momentum by Rick Turley

Mar 21st, 2010
by Kathy Rain.
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Along with the beautiful early spring weather, the Bay Area’s housing market is gradually starting to warm up, too. We’re off to a much more robust and healthy start this year, and it’s not just in the lower price ranges. The mid-to-upper level market is picking up from Silicon Valley through the Peninsula and up through Marin and across to parts of the East Bay.

As I mentioned in an interview with the San Jose Mercury yesterday, after the financial market meltdown a year ago, high-end home sales dried up during the first half of 2009. Compared to those days, homes sales in higher price ranges are much more active now, pushing up median prices around the Bay. And with relatively few homes on the market in Silicon Valley and on the Peninsula, prices have stabilized and buyers are now competing for good listings.

Half of the sales reported by our Los Altos office drew multiple offers, for example.  One Sunnyvale home listed at $950,000 drew 12 offers and sold for more than $1 million. In Palo Alto, we’re seeing eight to 10 multiple offers for properties that are well-priced.  The San Francisco Van Ness office says some well-priced high-end listings are selling in 10-15 days. The same story is being told in Menlo Park, Southern Marin, Orinda – in fact, most of the Bay Area’s higher-end markets.

We just released our Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage Luxury Report this week, and it shows million-dollar home sales in Marin nearly tripled last month from a year ago, while the median sale price jumped 25 percent.  The same was true in Silicon Valley, where luxury sales nearly doubled as the median price edge higher.

Now don’t get me wrong. While we’re seeing a promising recovery in many of our markets, we’re still fighting our way back to normalcy. The nation’s economy recovery is still very fragile. And the housing market’s gradual improvement must be sustained over time in the face of a challenged job market.  But the signs are encouraging that all sectors of our local housing market are slowly coming to life again.

Here’s a market-by-market report from our local offices:

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Sellers Now Have a Short Window of Opportunity

Jan 31st, 2010
by Kathy Rain.
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Super Bowl Sunday can’t come fast enough for the real estate market.  Historically, this is when the floodgates open and sellers start putting their homes on the market.  Good news for Buyers but not as good for Sellers.  Read what is happening in the Bay Area below.

“What’s happening? First-time buyers are rushing to take advantage of the federal tax credit before it expires this spring. Unfortunately, we aren’t seeing a commensurate number of sellers bringing homes to the market to capitalize on this. There are inventory shortages throughout the Bay Area. Open homes are attracting a flood of serious buyers. The result is that attractive, well-priced homes in good neighborhoods are getting lots of interest and, in some cases, multiple offers. 

Without as much competition for buyer’s attention, a well-maintained home could stand out like a redwood tree in a desert. This may not last for long as more homes come on the market in the weeks and months ahead (don’t forget the old adage that people start listing homes after the Super Bowl).

So by and large, it’s pretty much a conversation about inventory when you talk about our Bay Area real estate market.  Even the luxury market, while admittedly slower than lower price points, has inventories trending down.  Take San Francisco, for example, for homes over $2 million.  The luxury market finished out December 2009 with a 6 months supply of inventory – compared to 10 months supply for the same period in 2008.  You’ll find similar trends in the high end in many of our communities in Silicon Valley, Peninsula, Marin, and the East Bay.  Accuracy in pricing and attention to detail in showing condition remains critical in the luxury markets, but sales activity is picking up and inventories are going down.”  by Rick Turley, President, Coldwell Banker San Francisco Bay Area

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