▶ VideoToday, I want to look at the way owning a house free-and-clear can help with your retirement planning. As of last year, the Bureau of Labor Statistics said that the average person at retirement age has around $427,000 in retirement savings. When you consider how long life expectancies are and the cost of living, you…
▶ VideoLately, we are seeing a lot of these bank statement programs coming back and more clients taking advantage of them. Walter Neil, the owner of Franklin Loan Center helped me see what makes sense. I put together some numbers to see why a borrower might choose a bank statement loan instead of a full doc…
▶ VideoToday I want to talk about a topic recently shared in the New York Times: “Home Sellers Win $1.8 Billion After Jury Finds Conspiracy Among Realtors.” To summarize the case: realtors are being accused of fixing the prices and unnecessarily passing costs onto the consumer. Generally, in most real estate transactions, the sellers pay the…
▶ VideoToday’s topic is one that comes up occasionally: what other states can Franklin help with home loans? We actually have quite a few! When I started out with Franklin in 2016, we were licensed in 2 or 3 states. It’s grown so much since then. Personally, I am able to help in Washington and California…
▶ VideoThe way property taxes work in California: you buy a house, then at some point in the near future the county will re-assess the house at the purchase price. But supplemental tax bills come into effect because the county doesn’t reassess it right away. For example, you buy a house for $800,000 today. Previously, it…
▶ VideoToday I’m talking about the 5 things to not do when you are preparing to purchase a house – especially when you are in escrow before the purchase! 1. Don’t Quit Your Job Not only should you stay with the same job, but don’t take a pay cut or work less hours. Remember that we…
▶ VideoI did a presentation yesterday, and a bunch of real estate agents talked to me after mentioning that they are having a hard time getting buyers to make a move right now. I understand. There are a lot of things making people nervous: so much in the media, prices are high, rates are high, and…
▶ VideoWhen you apply for a mortgage and the lender does a “hard pull” on your credit, it typically triggers an onslaught of solicitations that the borrower gets for insurance, other mortgage offers, and many other services that are related to home buying and home ownership. This comes because the credit bureaus will sell your information…
▶ VideoA report from the National Association of Realtors talks about the myths of down payments. It’s interesting to understand that down payment requirements for buying a home might be lower than you realize: Additionally, there is down-payment assistance programs that can help. Do You Need Money for a Down Payment? The truth is that in…
▶ VideoThe National Association of Realtors recently released some interesting information. They say that homeowners build 40 times the amount of wealth compared to renters. Real Estate is Generating Wealth You’ve heard me talk about this topic often in my videos: that real estate is generating a lot of wealth than any other asset. You buy…
▶ VideoRecently, I’ve heard some funny stories about HOAs. I find that clients are very divided on this topic… some people will never live in an area with an HOA, while others are cool with an HOA. Why Some Homeowners Don’t Like HOAs Why does it matter? I understand why people are opposed to an HOA.…
▶ VideoI’ve talked about Prop 19 before, but the topic has come up a few times recently and I wanted to revisit it. In California, if you sell a primary residence property with the intent to buy another primary residence, you can take the assessment value of the original property with you. How Prop 19 Works…
