Financing your purchase

Half the battle of purchasing a property is getting the financing in order.    From knowing what to do prior to shopping to how to get thru the process sometimes the difference is all in the lender.

1st Step is to get pre Qualified.

Why Get Pre-Qualified?

1. Pre-qualification acts as a dry run of the loan application process. The mortgage lender will use details you provide about your credit, income, assets, and debts to arrive at an estimate of how much mortgage you can afford. The whole process may take only minutes or a few hours at most and is free.

2. While a “pre-qual” is non-binding to the lender (because the information you provide has not been verified), it does serve as a good indication to potential sellers of your general creditworthiness.

3. These days most sellers will NOT accept an offer without at least a pre-approval letter, so if you are serious about buying this is the first step towards getting you in your new home.

4.  You make the decision here of what is good for your budget and your family before you walk thru a home that you can’t afford and fall in love with it. ” Keeping it Real”

Know what type of loan you are going to need

When you finish that pre-qual you are going to know what type of loan you are going to purchase a property with.  You are going to know how much down payment you need.  You are also going to have a good idea of closing costs and whether we need to wrap them into your purchase or if you are paying cash for them.  And you are going to have a pretty good idea of the time frame that it is going to take you to complete the loan process.   Those are all things that make your offer stronger or weaker when we are home shopping.

The Key is with that information in hand, you and I can then have a Real conversation about your buying power and create a strategy for getting you the home that fits your needs.  

Some of our Preferred Lenders

To hit our preferred lender lists:   I like to work with banks and lenders that are honest!  And I don’t just mean honest in their day to day world.  I mean honest with you the consumer when you go in to borrow money.  A lot of lenders just like Real Estate agents want to tell you what you want to hear.  We all love to hear sure I can do that for you or sure we can get that price for you.  But the honest truth is sometimes they can’t.

I do use a lot more lenders than these that are listed and have had some good luck with some and some not so good luck with others.  But I like to know if you take one of mine that if they can’t do it they just tell you!  

It is usually the quirky property or the person that is on the edge of qualifying or has a unique circumstance where we hit the problems.  And I would tell you just for your information if one lender tells you No sometimes its just because they can’t offer a certain product or the borrower or the property does not fit into the certain size box that they have to package a loan into.  Since most banks sell their loans some play it safer than others on what they package up.

Many a day that I have called lenders for a buyer or a seller if I am listing a unique property trying to find a lender that can do that specific situation.  

I tried to outline some of these that can do some of the off the wall stuff so you know where to start if you really want a vacant lot or a condo that doesn’t qualify for the owner-occupied ratio that a standard bank wants.

General Home Loans

Vacant Land Loans

Northwest Farm Credit is our go-to lender for vacant land.  They are also very good at the larger lots that some of the traditional banks don’t want to loan on.  Homes on 40 acres or more as a good example.  I believe all of the land loan packages are at least 20% down.  They do also do farms and all things ag-related.

Our go-to Person in Northwest Farm Credit is Rhonda Baglien Rhonda.baglien@northwestfcs.com

Other Housing Loan Options

Washington Trust Bank

One of our favorite “Local Banks” for a variety of lending.  They have a great general housing loan serving all of the typical markets conventional, FHA etc.  and a pretty outstanding small business section.  One of the other specialties that they do is the manufactured homes on rented lots.  

Our go-to person at Wa trust is Lisa Sayler at   lsayler@watrust.com

Or Jared Evenson at homeloancenter@watrust.com

Global Credit Union

Another local lender that has all of the regular options and a few options that some other lenders do not have.  One being some good options for Condos that do not fall into every other lender’s box.  They also have some land loan options for vacant land.  And I believe they also have a manufactured home on rented lot product as well. As long as all of the other regular options.

Mountain West Bank

They are a local lender that works with a lot of the builders.  Great for construction loans and all other typical home loan products.  They do some land loans, and they have done some specialty products for me in the past.  Large horse facilities that don’t fall into a typical package for the average lender.

Veterans

Veterans United Home Loans  

Specializing in everything VA.

Our contact person is  Dorian Henderson 855-217-0769 ext 5949   Dorian.Henderson@vu.com  

Be sure to tell him that I sent you as he has a referral credit that at minimum can cover the cost of the appraisal.

They also have a credit Repair program with Lighthouse.  Check that out here!

And a guide to the VA home buying process

Manufactured Homes

Country Place Loans

Our contact there is James Grantham  jgrantham@countryplacemortgage.com 360-709-9191

They have a variety of products for everything manufactured.  From single wides to construction loans with new homes.  They have a package to purchase your lot, improve it, and put your new manufactured home on it for about 5% down for approved credit.    They also have a product for the twice moved manufactured home.   I think you need a credit score in the 620 to 680 to qualify for any of there products but lots of manufactured homes options with them.  Including homes in parks.

Northwest Housing  Services

Rick Budahl

208-467-9144

rbudahl@cableone.net

He has loans for homes in a park with as little as 5% down provided you are bare minimum a 600 credit score.