Category: Financing

VA Loan Programs The US Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) offers several different VA loan programs to help servicemembers and veterans with a home purchase or refinance. Being located near Naval Base Ventura County, there are many Ventura County residents who may be able to take advantage of one or more of the programs that … Continued

This is the 2nd and final post from our review of the Rocket Mortgage website. In the first post, we took a look at the process for applying for a new loan from Rocket Mortgage. In today’s post, we will take a look at the refinance process. Applying For a Rocket Mortgage Refinance The first … Continued

If you have watched TV or listened to the radio over the past year or so, you have probably seen or heard commercials about Rocket Mortgage. These commercials appear to be advertising “loan approval in minutes,” but can it really be that easy? In this post and the next one, we will take a look … Continued

For anyone who has ever bought a home, you are probably familiar with what an Earnest Money Deposit (EMD) is. For those who have yet to buy a home or are currently looking for a home, you may not have come across this term yet. In today’s post, we will look at what an earnest money … Continued

In our last post we talked about the Ventura County property tax. We hope that gave everyone a basic understanding of what the property tax is and how/when it must be paid. As promised, in today’s post we will discuss the Ventura County supplemental tax bill. Although somewhat related to your annual property tax, you … Continued

One of the expenses associated with owning a home is property taxes. If you have owned your home for more than a year or two, you are probably familiar with your property taxes, including how much you owe each year and how they are collected. For those who have never owned a home before, property … Continued

If you have been listening to the radio lately, you may have heard commercials about a program called Keep Your Home California. If it was the same commercial that we heard, it did not go into much detail about what the program was about or how it worked. It did mention that it can help … Continued

A topic that gets discussed in the real estate investing world quite often is “creative financing.”  Usually it is discussed as a way to buy and sell real estate outside of the normal method of obtaining a mortgage from a bank or other professional lender.  Although there are multiple ways in which you can use … Continued

If you have been keeping up with the news about residential real estate in California over the last few years, you have probably heard a lot about the high amount of homes that are being purchased using all cash (especially with regards to the Bay Area and parts of LA). While this may be great … Continued

A week or so ago, we wrote a post about the Dodd-Frank Act and the titles contained within it. That post was a very high level summary meant for anyone who wanted a big picture view about the Dodd-Frank Act in its entirety. Today, we want to take a more detailed look at the title … Continued

Many Ventura County residents may know what an Adjustable Rate Mortgage (ARM) is. If for no other reason, these types of loans generated a lot of headlines during the housing crash and great recession. While these loans can potentially carry some amount of risk, they do not have to necessarily be a bad thing and … Continued

For anyone who is currently in the market to buy or sell a home, or for those who have been paying attention to the latest real estate news, you may have heard that there are upcoming changes in the closing process. How these changes will play out and what consequences, if any, they have on … Continued

In the past few months, we have talked with a good amount of people who have been asking or thinking about refinancing.  Most of these people have been interested in locking in a lower interest rate, but the motivation for refinancing can vary from person to person.  In today’s post, we will take a look … Continued

If you have ever watched TV or listened to the radio, you may have seen or heard commercials advertising reverse mortgages. While I was watching March Madness several weeks ago, I came across this commercial and thought that this would be a good topic for our next blog post. A large percentage of people have … Continued