Latest / Connor with Honor: AI, Real Estate and Real Life / The Lender Question That Could Save Santa Clarita Buyers $10K

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The Lender Question That Could Save Santa Clarita Buyers $10K · Connor with Honor: AI, Real Estate and Real Life

• 0:01
  SPEAKER_00: Considering buying real estate, I've kind of broken things down into a complete video series that takes you from the very beginning, just thinking about it all the way through.
• 0:10
  SPEAKER_00: And one of the parts of the video process and the real estate process that I've been putting on video that I'd like to talk about a little bit has to do with those first thoughts about buying real estate.
• 0:21
  SPEAKER_00: The very first step, if in fact you think it's a good choice, one of the things to do to figure out if it is for you is to find out what those benefits are on a monetary basis.
• 0:31
  SPEAKER_00: The emotional stuff is always baked in.
• 0:33
  SPEAKER_00: You're going to have something that's literally yours, something that you'll be able to do to with certain regard, with what your heart happens to desire.
• 0:42
  SPEAKER_00: But in some cases, if it's an HOA-controlled housing area, if you have HOA you have to talk to, if there's certain city codes, if you're like not in the middle of nowhere with nobody watching, there's certain city codes that you have to ascribe to, you might not be able to paint your house a certain color.
• 0:57
  SPEAKER_00: You might not be able to add a second store, you might not be able to do certain things.
• 1:01
  SPEAKER_00: So those investigations are important, but having that homeownership under your belt is kind of a big deal because when you go from the renting world building somebody else's equity, and then you're able to build your own equity on something that you purchase, it is a much bigger deal than, of course, you know, trying to pay somebody else's bills.
• 1:20
  SPEAKER_00: That being said, you'll also want to find out exactly what your benefit's going to be on that monetary basis as well, not just building equity, but what kind of tax deduction you might be able to get because you're able to write off mortgage interest.
• 1:35
  SPEAKER_00: That's part of that process, but that's going to take you talking to a CPA.
• 1:40
  SPEAKER_00: But let's say all that works out and you actually figure out that actually owning real estate is going to be more affordable than renting something.
• 1:48
  SPEAKER_00: So then that next step is how do you find out what you can afford, what you can actually qualify to finance.
• 1:56
  SPEAKER_00: Now, if you have a suitcase full of money, if you have very rich relatives, that's going to be a no-brainer.
• 2:00
  SPEAKER_00: Those folks should be able to help you out completely.
• 2:03
  SPEAKER_00: Not all of us are in that world.
• 2:04
  SPEAKER_00: And in fact, I know I'm not.
• 2:06
  SPEAKER_00: So it's going to take a loan.
• 2:08
  SPEAKER_00: My first step is going to be talking to the real estate agent about good qualified lenders.
• 2:14
  SPEAKER_00: And I know I just mentioned not reaching out to the lender first, but the real estate agent, and here's a couple of reasons why.
• 2:20
  SPEAKER_00: The real estate agent's going to have worked with a lot of lenders in the valley, some good, some bad.
• 2:25
  SPEAKER_00: They should be basically able to educate you on that entire lending process.
• 2:31
  SPEAKER_00: What questions should you ask?
• 2:33
  SPEAKER_00: What are the differences between lenders out there?
• 2:35
  SPEAKER_00: Because there are different ones.
• 2:37
  SPEAKER_00: You have your mainline banks, your Bank of America's, your Wells Fargo's, your Chase's, your citibanks.
• 2:43
  SPEAKER_00: You have those, and typically they're not super nimble.
• 2:47
  SPEAKER_00: And in some cases, maybe those loan officers aren't available after hours on weekends during holidays.
• 2:53
  SPEAKER_00: So before I get into the other types, why should they be available on weekends during holidays, after hours, and not from you know 5 p.m.
• 3:01
  SPEAKER_00: Monday shut down until 9 a.m.
• 3:03
  SPEAKER_00: Monday, wake up and get to the office?
• 3:06
  SPEAKER_00: Because you might need them to answer questions over the weekend.
• 3:09
  SPEAKER_00: And especially if you're actively hunting real estate with your real estate agent, it could be you run into something that might exceed your price point.
• 3:16
  SPEAKER_00: Or you run into something that has a higher mellow ruse amount than you expected.
• 3:22
  SPEAKER_00: Or maybe something that has a more expensive HOA.
• 3:25
  SPEAKER_00: You have to find that out.
• 3:27
  SPEAKER_00: In addition, let's say you're looking for condos and townhomes.
• 3:31
  SPEAKER_00: In certain cases, some of those condominiums and townhomes aren't even available to have loans written on them.
• 3:38
  SPEAKER_00: They have to be cash transactions only for various reasons.
• 3:41
  SPEAKER_00: And usually a good, savvy local real estate agent will know why that is and which ones to, you know, at least prepare you for in case you get excited and want to see those.
• 3:52
  SPEAKER_00: But particular loan types won't be allowed to use as finances.
• 3:55
  SPEAKER_00: So let's say you're FHA or VA, maybe and you're buying a condominium townhome, and maybe some PUDs with certain examples, which are planned urban development type real estate, maybe they're excluded from being allowed to use those types of loans.
• 4:08
  SPEAKER_00: And you have the question, you need to find out if in fact it fits that profile, you're able to use the loan that you're using on it because you're searching over a weekend.
• 4:16
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe there's a high drive in that particular area for these properties, maybe there's high competition as well.
• 4:22
  SPEAKER_00: So thereby you need to talk to your lender.
• 4:24
  SPEAKER_00: And if they're not available during those off hours, then you could potentially miss out on something that you might be able to successfully negotiate and get into escrow on.
• 4:36
  SPEAKER_00: So that's that parse process.
• 4:38
  SPEAKER_00: So their availability is important.
• 4:40
  SPEAKER_00: Mainline banks typically borrow money directly from their coffers.
• 4:45
  SPEAKER_00: They don't have really a lot of sources they go to outside their own their own money.
• 4:50
  SPEAKER_00: Credit unions, kind of the same.
• 4:51
  SPEAKER_00: They usually lend out their own money.
• 4:53
  SPEAKER_00: In fact, some credit unions can't do particular types of loans like FHA and VA.
• 4:59
  SPEAKER_00: Same with the same thing with mainline banks.
• 5:01
  SPEAKER_00: Typically, what ends up happening, if you go there, the lender loves you but finds out that you want to use an FHA or VA, they'll say, oh, absolutely, we'll take great care of you.
• 5:09
  SPEAKER_00: Then they farm you out to another entity that they refer those types of loans to.
• 5:14
  SPEAKER_00: That's something that I wouldn't be super happy with.
• 5:17
  SPEAKER_00: I would much rather deal with the source from the beginning.
• 5:21
  SPEAKER_00: So you might want to ask those questions.
• 5:23
  SPEAKER_00: But again, if they farm you out to somebody that does VA and FHA, you're going to do the same thing in that regard.
• 5:28
  SPEAKER_00: If you're trying to get a loan as you would do in any other regard, you want to get a second opinion on the particular circumstance and whatever it's going to cost you to get the loan and also what they're able to do for you in the process.
• 5:40
  SPEAKER_00: If the interest rates happen to drop during the escrow process, will they lower their rates?
• 5:45
  SPEAKER_00: Are they able to?
• 5:46
  SPEAKER_00: How long does that lock exist?
• 5:48
  SPEAKER_00: When are they actually going to lock you into your loan?
• 5:51
  SPEAKER_00: What are the things that they're going to be charging you for?
• 5:54
  SPEAKER_00: If they're not charging you for some kind of original meaning, what it's going to cost you to get the loan, are they going to be adding more interest rate points on top of your loan to basically make up for that?
• 6:06
  SPEAKER_00: So that is going to come to you via some kind of a good faith estimate on your loan.
• 6:11
  SPEAKER_00: And that's what you would ask for typically from any lender that you're interested in, maybe having them obtain your business.
• 6:17
  SPEAKER_00: One of the things I will tell you with regard to that, though, is most of them are going to say, you know, you don't have a house identified.
• 6:24
  SPEAKER_00: So realistically, we can't give you those numbers that you're looking for because we don't know what you're going to be buying.
• 6:30
  SPEAKER_00: So if they qualify you, let's say a$950,000, and you look at that all-in payment, including potential HOA, potential Melarus, and you're okay with that, then that's what you should base their estimate on.
• 6:44
  SPEAKER_00: A good faith estimate.
• 6:45
  SPEAKER_00: Say, let's do a workup estimate$950, which include this much HOA, this much in Melarus, and let's make it a single family residence.
• 6:54
  SPEAKER_00: Because there's different costs depending on what the properties are.
• 6:57
  SPEAKER_00: Based on your type of loan, then they should be able to work out those numbers so you'll be able to see exactly what it's going to cost you.
• 7:04
  SPEAKER_00: At least today, what's the interest rate looks like?
• 7:06
  SPEAKER_00: And let me kind of spin into this.
• 7:09
  SPEAKER_00: Don't be oversold by people online, these mega real estate lending companies that are basically promising these absurdly low interest rates.
• 7:20
  SPEAKER_00: That's how they hook you and bring you in.
• 7:22
  SPEAKER_00: You want to understand that interest rates fluctuate every day.
• 7:26
  SPEAKER_00: Interest rates are totally based on that Fed funds rate.
• 7:30
  SPEAKER_00: That's the one everybody talks about.
• 7:31
  SPEAKER_00: That's the one the president's in an argument with uh with what's his face hitting the Fed, Jerome Powell, that's where all that comes in.
• 7:39
  SPEAKER_00: The mortgage rates are based on the 10-year bond.
• 7:42
  SPEAKER_00: So the 10-year bond is if you're going to be watching, that's where you want to see it.
• 7:46
  SPEAKER_00: But it does fluctuate a little bit every day.
• 7:48
  SPEAKER_00: If there, if the 10-year bond gets more solid, interest rates drop.
• 7:52
  SPEAKER_00: If it gets a little bit more sketchy, then they go up, and so on and so forth.
• 7:56
  SPEAKER_00: If the day that you find the house, have the offer written, have it negotiated, back and forth with counters, and then finally it's all yours, usually that's the date that your lender, after they get all the documents, is going to lock your interest rate.
• 8:13
  SPEAKER_00: Now, and a couple weeks later, what if it goes down?
• 8:16
  SPEAKER_00: Are they going to relock you?
• 8:17
  SPEAKER_00: These are good questions to ask.
• 8:18
  SPEAKER_00: And if, in fact, some and some lenders they kind of play around like they're gambling in Vegas with your money, and they might not lock it exactly at that time because they have an idea that it's going to be coming down in the future.
• 8:32
  SPEAKER_00: Now, they've more than likely already gotten you sold on a particular interest rate.
• 8:36
  SPEAKER_00: So, however lower they can lock it, that's going to be gravy for them.
• 8:40
  SPEAKER_00: It equates to more money.
• 8:42
  SPEAKER_00: Not all lenders have this practice, but I've been around a few that like to play those Vegas odds.
• 8:47
  SPEAKER_00: And if the interest rate they screw up, the interest rate happens to go up higher, well, they don't eat it.
• 8:52
  SPEAKER_00: They come back to you and say, oh, sorry about this job.
• 8:55
  SPEAKER_00: But you know the way interest rates are, they came up, and this is where you happen to be, not where I promised you, and so on and so forth.
• 9:02
  SPEAKER_00: So you, when you talk to the lender, whether it's a credit union, mainline bank, or mortgage broker, you'll want to find out their availability.
• 9:08
  SPEAKER_00: You want to kind of get an idea where their thought process is, how they rate lock, and then also their good faith estimates showing what they're going to make.
• 9:16
  SPEAKER_00: Now, that final type of lender out there, so I talked about mainline banks and credit unions.
• 9:21
  SPEAKER_00: Some of them are pretty nimble.
• 9:23
  SPEAKER_00: Usually they can only draw on their singular resources for money.
• 9:27
  SPEAKER_00: Usually they themselves, that's where the money's going to come from, to help you.
• 9:31
  SPEAKER_00: And then immediately after you finish with them and close, more than likely, that loan's going to be sold.
• 9:36
  SPEAKER_00: On the case of banks, some credit unions hold the paper.
• 9:39
  SPEAKER_00: Firemen's Los Angeles Firemen's Credit Union, I believe, they hold on to all their notes, so they don't sell those off.
• 9:46
  SPEAKER_00: So you're always making a payment to them.
• 9:48
  SPEAKER_00: And I guess that's why they're so economically viable.
• 9:53
  SPEAKER_00: They're in very good shape economically, from what I understand.
• 9:58
  SPEAKER_00: The next part of this is going to be talking to mortgage brokers.
• 10:02
  SPEAKER_00: Now, a mortgage broker doesn't they can pull on mainline bank money.
• 10:06
  SPEAKER_00: They can also pull on a few other hundred sources of residential loans, mortgages.
• 10:12
  SPEAKER_00: They can find different companies out there that are actually writing paper on residences.
• 10:17
  SPEAKER_00: A lot of times they're more nimble than the other two types of lenders in the world.
• 10:22
  SPEAKER_00: And in some cases, they'll be able to get you that better deal, but you'll only know that getting in with that good faith estimate.
• 10:28
  SPEAKER_00: And also remember this.
• 10:30
  SPEAKER_00: It shouldn't be the case.
• 10:31
  SPEAKER_00: But like sometimes real estate agents overpromise and underdeliver, which is absolutely absurd and sad, and it shouldn't be the case.
• 10:39
  SPEAKER_00: But that's humans for you.
• 10:40
  SPEAKER_00: On the lending side, it happens as well.
• 10:43
  SPEAKER_00: You'll like them, they're very fancy, they have a lot of nice things to say.
• 10:47
  SPEAKER_00: They say that you have kind eyes and you have a kind face, and after that, you're all into them, and then they end up screwing you when it comes to what they're charging you to get the loan, the interest rates, and so on.
• 10:58
  SPEAKER_00: Same thing happens in the real estate world.
• 11:00
  SPEAKER_00: So even though you might like them, at least let them know that you're going to be bouncing the information that they give you off a friend, a relative, a dad, a mom, a sister, a brother, somebody that's super savvy in the finance world.
• 11:16
  SPEAKER_00: It usually puts people a little bit on notice if they believe that's going to happen.
• 11:20
  SPEAKER_00: Whether it is or not, that's up to you.
• 11:22
  SPEAKER_00: But it doesn't hurt to maybe make that offering.
• 11:25
  SPEAKER_00: Just listen, just so you know, I'm going to be talking to my uncle about this, and he's a fancy smart investment type cat.
• 11:34
  SPEAKER_00: So I'm going to be talking to him about it.
• 11:35
  SPEAKER_00: Just to let you know, I hope you don't mind.
• 11:37
  SPEAKER_00: If he asks questions, I might direct him to you.
• 11:39
  SPEAKER_00: His name is John Smith, such and such.
• 11:42
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe that wouldn't hurt you in that particular process.
• 11:45
  SPEAKER_00: But getting your pre-approval put together before jumping into real estate, after, of course, you answer those other questions would be very important.
• 11:53
  SPEAKER_00: Now, as I talked about just a little bit, if you're approved at a particular number, you need to find out what your all-in payment is going to be.
• 12:01
  SPEAKER_00: How much is that going to cost every month when you're writing that check to your mortgage company?
• 12:05
  SPEAKER_00: And if there's going to be some kind of Melaruz tax, which are extra taxes on top of regular property taxes, and those typically pay for things that the original builders didn't want to pay for, and they came up with a solution.
• 12:17
  SPEAKER_00: Hell, we'll just have each individual homeowner pay us these extra fees for infrastructure, lighting, EMS schools, that's emergency medical services, fire department, police schools, these sorts of things.
• 12:30
  SPEAKER_00: They have to be paid.
• 12:31
  SPEAKER_00: Sometimes the builders, Paul Brothers has always been very good at paying these up front.
• 12:35
  SPEAKER_00: Some of the other builders, well, they just don't because they know you'll pay it.
• 12:40
  SPEAKER_00: That being the case, you want to do that all-in payment scenario because maybe$950,000 financed in real estate, that payment is going to look really scary.
• 12:50
  SPEAKER_00: And you'll want to work out all the numbers.
• 12:52
  SPEAKER_00: So let's say you do have some kind of mortgage interest deduction.
• 12:55
  SPEAKER_00: You want to see where that is.
• 12:57
  SPEAKER_00: And if you have other benefits of owning the house that you might not expect, you're also going to have utilities.
• 13:02
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe you didn't have that with the rental.
• 13:04
  SPEAKER_00: You're also going to have to pay your own property taxes.
• 13:06
  SPEAKER_00: You probably didn't have that with the rental.
• 13:08
  SPEAKER_00: And HOA, you probably didn't have that either with the rental.
• 13:11
  SPEAKER_00: Also, landscaping, maintenance, pool maintenance, these sorts of things.
• 13:15
  SPEAKER_00: Probably not with the rental.
• 13:16
  SPEAKER_00: These are things that you're probably going to be paying more out of your pocket as a homeowner.
• 13:21
  SPEAKER_00: But once you get all that factored in, then you can say, okay, yeah, 950, I can, I think 950 is comfortable for us or me.
• 13:28
  SPEAKER_00: So let's proceed with that price range.
• 13:30
  SPEAKER_00: Then it's going to be up to your agent to know the market to be able to make those certain allowances.
• 13:35
  SPEAKER_00: If they are out there hunting for real estate for you and they see properties priced at 980 or 990 that are actually overpriced and they're able to prove that to the seller, then they can make those introductions to those type of properties to you.
• 13:48
  SPEAKER_00: Not to dial you up above where you are, but it's a good strategy to look at properties that have expired, that have been canceled, that have been withdrawn from the market in order to get the best thing for their buyers.
• 14:00
  SPEAKER_00: And a savvy buyer's agent will do that.
• 14:03
  SPEAKER_00: They'll not only look at where you are configured with regard to how much you're going to be borrowing for a particular piece of property, but they'll expand that a little bit, but only take into account those overpriced listings, which for a savvy real estate agent, it's not hard to put together.
• 14:17
  SPEAKER_00: Being a problem solver in this game is really critical.
• 14:20
  SPEAKER_00: And the longer you've been in, can't say that, not maybe the longer you've been in the business, but the more you have a certain knack for that, able to go into a situation and assess it very quickly and then make determinations as to how you're going to achieve the best outcomes.
• 14:37
  SPEAKER_00: That's how I operate my business.
• 14:39
  SPEAKER_00: I was a cop for a long time, so there was every day wasn't without some kind of conflict and some kind of decision that had to be made.
• 14:46
  SPEAKER_00: Whether do I elevate this to a different level as far as use of force goes?
• 14:49
  SPEAKER_00: Do I say is verbal going to work on this all the way through?
• 14:52
  SPEAKER_00: And if not, what are my next steps?
• 14:54
  SPEAKER_00: What are my next challenges?
• 14:55
  SPEAKER_00: And then how do I achieve those?
• 14:57
  SPEAKER_00: I apply the same thing to real estate.
• 14:58
  SPEAKER_00: When people are asking me, should we be buying or selling real estate at this time?
• 15:02
  SPEAKER_00: We go through the numbers, talk about the market.
• 15:04
  SPEAKER_00: I educate them on my Zoomme scv.com system where you come on, we have a Zoom meeting, we talk about it.
• 15:11
  SPEAKER_00: But that's a little bit of a breakdown with lending.
• 15:13
  SPEAKER_00: And as I put together some information for today's show, I thought I would go off on a rant and talk about those first parts of that approval process.
• 15:21
  SPEAKER_00: Things to look out for as a real estate buyer, and maybe some of this education you can also pass on to those in your world that are considering buying or selling anything.
• 15:31
  SPEAKER_00: I'm Connor with Honor.
• 15:32
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you so much for watching.
• 15:34
  SPEAKER_00: We will see you tomorrow as I do daily updates.
• 15:37
  SPEAKER_00: I'm going to go ahead and post this video at Santa ClaritaOpenhouses.com.
• 15:42
  SPEAKER_00: And in fact, I did put up the numbers from this morning.
• 15:46
  SPEAKER_00: I did put up the numbers for this morning.
• 15:48
  SPEAKER_00: So in Santa Clarita, all total, the last seven days, we've had eight properties coming soon.
• 15:53
  SPEAKER_00: 70 new listings have hit the market, 97 properties, but the prices changed.
• 15:58
  SPEAKER_00: 24 properties have gone back on market.
• 16:00
  SPEAKER_00: 34 properties have gone active under contract.
• 16:03
  SPEAKER_00: 49 pending, 43 closed, 11 expired, 19 canceled, 15 have been put on hold, and 11 have been withdrawn in the past seven days.
• 16:12
  SPEAKER_00: Complete market snapshot.
• 16:13
  SPEAKER_00: We're running around 800 total active residential listing, condominiums, townhomes, single family residences, all of the Santa Clarita Valley cities of Catalyst, Canyon Country, New Hall Sagas, Stevenson Ranch, and Valencia.
• 16:28
  SPEAKER_00: And actinotes, I'm going to put another couple hundred on top of that.
• 16:32
  SPEAKER_00: You can see all those at Santa Clarita Openhouses.com.
• 16:35
  SPEAKER_00: You watching this makes me happy.
• 16:37
  SPEAKER_00: Today is the 11th of August 2025.
• 16:40
  SPEAKER_00: It's about 9 or 6 a.m.
• 16:42
  SPEAKER_00: All the preceding stuff till you got to this point, it is evergreen.
• 16:46
  SPEAKER_00: It's important to find good lenders in the world.
• 16:49
  SPEAKER_00: It's important to find a good real estate agent in the world.
• 16:53
  SPEAKER_00: And when you want to know what questions to ask and whether or not they're a problem solver, you should be able to determine that by the content that they're spinning up and putting out there.
• 17:03
  SPEAKER_00: Is it all about my latest Jamaican vacation, or is it about how I try to solve those problems that both buyers and sellers have when it comes to purchasing and selling real estate in my local market and beyond?
• 17:14
  SPEAKER_00: Meanwhile, everybody, thanks for watching.
• 17:16
  SPEAKER_00: I'm Connor with Honor, over and out.
• 17:23
  SPEAKER_00: You know, finding how to shut it off is really kind of the trick.