As we continue to see low inventory in the housing market and high rent prices, many home owners are adding ADUs (which stands for Accessory Dwelling Units).
ADUs often called granny flats, are guest houses or rooms added to garages to create rental income for home owners. Home owners typically add ADUs to increase cash flow, as well as looking for their property value to appreciate. Whether ADUs are right for you, depends on a number of factors. ADUs often costs at least $100,000 to build so being in a high rent market helps to offset the initial investment. You’ll also need to make sure local ordinances allow them and what the regulations are.
The old real estate adage about location stays true for ADUs as well. If you are in an area where rents are high or a popular vacation destination, then ADUs can make sense. Again you’ll need to check the local zoning and if you build one you will also need to have updated insurance to cover the ADU. Check with us to learn more and to see what financing terms you qualify for.

You may not be familiar with a joint mortgage – this is where there are two or more parties on a mortgage. Commonly friends, family or a partner will combine their incomes and assets to buy a house. This is often done when one party cannot qualify or can’t afford a property on their own. Unlike a typical mortgage all parties are on the mortgage and all assume responsibility for paying it.
The main benefit of a joint mortgage is being able to afford or qualify for more of home than one party is able to on their own.
As you may have guessed this creates a more complicated situation where you can have co-ownership, and may be dependent on multiple parties making payments. Further you could have one party wanting to sell or refinance in the future. It can also affect one parties ability to get a loan in the future as they are tied to the joint mortgage.
So its best to be aware of all the requirements and scenarios before applying. And make sure you have a strong relationship between both parties including having similar interests and goals regarding the property.

If you were recently denied for a mortgage application, it doesn’t mean you can’t get approved somewhere else. There are some application issues that are fixable. The first thing you’ll want to know is why you were denied. We can take a look and shop for other loans options.
Credit issues are a common reason for getting denied. The first thing to do is to examine your credit report to see if there are any errors that can be fixed. There are also other loan programs if your score doesn’t fit conventional loans.
Debt to income ration or DTI that is too high is another common reason to be denied. The first thing if possible, would be to pay down debt. Another common source of debt is student loans – you may want to look into applying for the new student loan forgiveness program.
Simply being denied once does not mean the end of the road, we can consider multiple loan options. A co-signer is another option to consider, although this will make the application process less streamlined. Complete our quick qualifier and we can schedule a consultation to see what you can qualify for and for how much.

If you’re in the market for a new house, you’ve probably heard that you want to get pre… qualified or pre-approved?
What’s the difference anyways?
There’s actually a big difference. Pre-qualified is more of a preliminary step. It gives you a general idea of much home you can afford. We will examine your credit, income, assets, and debts and you’ll have a general idea of the price range you’re looking for. You may also see that you need to increase your savings or lower debts before you buy. While pre-qualifying is an initial step, pre-approval is a deeper dive and being pre-approved carries more weight with sellers.
To get pre-approved we will verify you income, assets, etc. and you will be more official (of course you still have to apply for a mortgage). Being pre-approved is almost a necessity in competitive housing markets, as realtors do not want to waste time and you will have a better chance of having your bid accepted. Now that we know the difference you may wonder what’s the point of getting pre-qualified – why not just get pre-approved? Good question – basically its much faster and it gives you a good starting point to start your home search. Pre-qualify or pre-approve we can help you with both – apply on our website or call us to get started.

As the Federal Reserve has indicated lowering inflation is a top priority and raising short term interest rates as its primary tool to do this, we have seen mortgage markets react with higher rates (mortgage rates are not directly tied to the Fed rate, but they often move in the same direction).
The 30 year rate moved up to 5.89% this week accord B ing to Freddie Mac. While these rates are higher than pandemic lows, the still fall into the historic “normal” range.
While the Fed is taking a strong position against inflation, we are seeing market conditions improve in some areas. As Dawit Kebede, an economist for the Credit Union National Association noted recently, “there are signs that some of the main drivers of inflation are easing, such as lower oil and other commodity prices in July, slower wage growth, and declining supply chain pressures.”
There is also a renewed interest in ARM loans with the 5/1 ARM at an average of 4.52% last week.
Every loan scenario is unique so fill out our loan analyzer on our website and we can see what program is a good fit for you!