For all my San Diego people’s 😉 Here are some tips to help you prepare to take advantage of the opportunities in a down real-estate market.
Are You In a Position to Buy Property?
Are you prepared for the down payment that’s going to be needed? Have you gotten pre-approved for a loan from a mortgage lender and finally, do you really know where you want to be?
Do you have enough cash?
Mortgage lending is going to get more difficult as the required down payment will increase, and there won’t be many low loan down payment options out there besides your FHA 3% down Fanny Mae and Freddie Mac loans. Conventional loans where you put 3, 5, or 10% down payment will be difficult to obtain right now. So where do you find the cash needed for a larger down payment?
Sell off Non-Performing Assets
It might be time to sell of some of your stocks. You need to get liquid capital in the bank to be ready for purchase. Under-performing assets need to go!
Take Out a Home Equity Line
I have a few clients who have recently pulled capital out of their home equity line. Some banks will stop doing home equity lines or even closing lines that aren’t being used. It might be a good time to pull some cash out and put that on the sidelines ready to be used as a down-payment. (Talk to your mortgage lender about debt to income ratios)
Get that Credit Score Up!
The best immediate way to get your credit score up is to of-course pay off any pending credit card dues or at least get those balances below 30% of your credit lines. You can then ask for your credit card limits to be increased. You generally get an approval on this if you haven’t asked for it in over 6 months. You’re going to want to have as much available credit s you can but not be using more than 30% of it. This in turn, will also boost your credit score.
Get in Touch with One of Our Mortgage Lenders
Even if you aren’t planning on buying for a year+, we still need to figure out how much of a down payment is needed, what your monthly mortgage payment’s going to look like and how much you can actually go spend. My team will then need to get out there and pinpoint the opportunity zones that will fit into your budget.
Opportunity Zones
We would not only be looking for neighborhoods that fit your price point, but would also be on the lookout of opportunity zones. There will be pockets that are hit harder than the other neighborhoods. For example, Pacific Beach CA has a bunch of vacation rentals and those businesses are getting hit the hardest at this time.
So to summarize:
- Get yourself some cash reserves and increase your credit score.
- Talk to your mortgage lender to get pre-approved and understand what you need.
- Find the ideal opportunity zones for your purchase.
If you have any further questions regarding the way it’s going to further impact San Diego real estate market or anything along those lines, feel free to reach out to me using the information below.
- If you are thinking about buying or selling we would love to help.
- See why you should hire us on TrueLocalRealty.com
- Or give us a call at 888-503-3117