贷款买房子的基本要求

最近有客户来信问我在美国买房子贷款方面的要求，我简单整理了一下。

可以贷多少？

这边一般是这么算的，每个月的固定还贷额不能超过税前收入的42-45%。收入越高，这个比例可以越高。这个还贷额包括各种贷款（车的，房子的，还有学生贷款）。而房子的费用不是只是还给银行的那部分，还包括物业税，物业管理费HOA dues（如果有），保险，简称PITI (Principal + interest, taxes and insurance)。而物业税这方面还有固定的物业税（property tax，每年的费用通常大概是买价的1.25%）和mello-roos。 Mello-roos每个小区都不一样，一般来说越新的小区会越贵，所以每个月从几十到400都有。
 

我们举个例子吧。

假如房子的卖价是100万，贷款50万，利率是4%， 30年贷款的话，每个月的贷款要还大概2400，物业税大概1050（100万x1.25%/12），保险大概100块，至于Mello-roos 和小区管理费，新的小区500左右很正常，旧点的可以200块甚至没有。所以算下来大概3500到4000块吧。

以前有的人笼统地说贷款一般是年收入的3倍是不太准确的。现在这个Mello-Roos 和HOA 加起来每个月可以是500-600块，完全能影响到整个贷款额。

首付需要多少？

首付当然越多越好，这样通常贷款就越容易。而且贷款额的大小会影响贷款的难度和利率，贷款额超过41万7会难一些或者利率高一些，超过546,250又难一些，甚至做不了，限制会多很多。一般来说独立的房子(single family home）需要买价的20%，公寓（condominium)或者连排的房子 (townhome)会需要买价的25%。

最近做了一个客户是80-10-10的贷款，其中80%是真的贷款，10%左右是自己的存款，另外有10%是那位先生新的工作单位的提供的搬家的费用(relocation package）。可是这个不是所有的银行都提供这样的贷款产品，所以在签合约之前必须与你的经纪和帮你办理贷款的人说清楚。

谁可以贷款？

一般来说工作签证H-1B,绿卡，和公民都没有问题。如果是J-1/J-2签证，需要用外国人身份贷款，会有不同的要求。

办理贷款一般起码需要什么材料？

2年的报税表，2个月的工资单，2个月的银行月结单（bank statement）或者股票账户的月结单。
如果是工作签证会需要签证的影印本，也需要工作单位提供一个联系方式以证明贷款人确实在那个单位工作。
如果有别的物业的话，有可能会需要那个房子的租约等。
每个人的情况都不一样，具体需要和你的贷款人员谈谈你个人的需要。

Who is a good buyer?

If you have been in the market lately for a property, you probably can't help but notice that it's a truly a seller's market.  In a recent office meeting, we discussed what our clients needed to be in order to get an offer accepted.  We summed it up to an offer with most if not all of these qualities: all-cash with no contigecies, if loan then no appraisal contingency, no repairs, no termite clearance, indefinite rent back for the seller to find another home with free rent, closing in 7 days if possible...

All kidding aside, it has been very challenging to get an offer accepted.  It almost seems no matter how high an asking price is, there is always someone offer full price or over asking price.  And there are plenty of cash offers to go around, particularly in homes under $300,000. 

Home security

A couple weeks ago a friend's home in a neighborhood that is considered "safe" and "good" got broken in. After reporting to the police, she found out they were the only house in the block that was victimized. It's both fortunate and unfortunate. The police officer said the burglars must have been watching them for some time and know exactly how their schedules were, because the burglar spent quite a bit of time in their home thoroughly searching each drawer.

When the friend asked why they were targeted, given their house was not any different from their neighbors, the officer said because they had couplets by their front door. This year's Lunar New Year was the end of January, and many burglars know by the couplets that this is likely to be an Asian family that celebrates Lunar New Year. Part of the celebration is to give children lucky money/red envelope, and therefore, the home usually has some cash and jewelries during this time of the year.

The moral of the story is not only to get a security alarm system, but also to know your neighbors and watch out for each other. The belongings might be replaced, but the feeling of being violated and the sense of insecurity will linger for a very long time.

Earthquake Insurance

In the wake of Japan's earthquake, my clients are asking me if they should be getting earthquake insurance. I am not an insurance agent, so I would not have all the answers. An article to day in LA Times provides some answers.

Quake coverage worth the cost?

According to this article

• about 12% of the homeowners have earthquake coverage
• insurance is expensive, especially if you have an older home, home that's made of masonry or brick, homes of multiple stories, and homes sit on soil that is less stable deductible is usually a percentage of the home's structural replacement value, typically 10 -15%
• coverage is limited

Talk to your insurance agent, and you can decide for yourself if you need the quake coverage.

For those who are buying condos

My most recent transaction is a condo that looked just like a detached single family home, but it was built as a condo by the developer, and has a condo designation in the tax record.

You probably know condos need an HOA cert for the loan (that includes information such as owner occupancy ratio and HOA due delinquency ratio) and your interest rate will be 1/8 or so higher than a single family home that does not have a condo designation. What you probably didn’t know is about two weeks ago, the lending rules have changed (at least for Wells Fargo), and now each lender (think bank) has to warrant its own loan. With this change banks are doing all sorts of investigations into the well-being of the HOA and are much stricter on some requirements, such as if the reserves are low.

While this is actually a good thing for the buyer (it protects the buyer from unexpected special assessments), it can SERIOUSLY delay the progress of the loan because the progress relies upon how quickly the management companies get back to the lender. This delay is probably not an issue if you have a traditional equity sale transaction (and if you have an understanding seller), it might become a huge issue if you are buying a short sale or bank owned property, especially if the bank threatens to charge you a per diem fee for closing beyond the original contract date. Not to mention also that there is a cost associated with this new condo questionnaire, and many lender are passing it onto the buyers (in my case the lender paid for it, but they won’t be doing this forever).

You might be a solid buyer with 20% down buying an owner occupied home; you still need to be aware of this potential issue. For my buyer, unfortunately, this change started in the middle of the escrow and we had no way of preparing for it. Talk to your lender upfront so you don’t get caught off guard.

Popcorn ceiling texture disposal in San Diego.

If you are a homeowner of an older home with popcorn ceiling like us, and if you'd like to remove them by yourself, I hope the following information is helpful for you.

First you need to get the popcorn texture tested to see if it contains asbestos. Although the general rule is if your house was built after 1978, it should not contain asbestos. But if your house was built around that time, it's safer to get it tested for the peace of mind. You can google a testing labs.

Our results came back positive. With that, you can only hire a licensed asbestos abatement company or you can remove it yourself. We decided to do it ourselves.

You can google how to properly remove the popcorn ceiling texture. There are websites and videos show you how to do that. What I want to talk about is how to properly dispose the popcorn material. It turns out that's harder than the job itself.

I called the San Diego Environmental Services before we started the project, and I was told to take it to the landfill on a Saturday with an appointment. The next time when we were done, I called to make an appointment and was told they do not take materials with asbestos in them. I was given a name of a company that should be able to dispose it for us. I called that company and was given the Environmental Services number in return.

It turns out you need to call a registered hazardous waste hauler/transporter. For a complete list of these companies, go to the California Department of Toxic Substances Control. As part of the disposal you will need to obtain a temporary EPA ID number from the State of California, and the company you choose to hire can help you obtain the number.

We contacted two companies. One told us to transport the waste to a Chula Vista facility. The other would send in someone to re-double-bag our waste in our driveway, and haul it away. We chose the latter for the same price. The gentleman packaged the bags (which we double bagged) with another layer of bag/plastic sheet and warning labels.

As I am writing right now, our popcorn ceiling is being transported to somewhere in Arizona. Once it safely arrives, we will receive a receipt in the mail that it reaches the destination.

It took us almost 2 weeks trying to figure out how to be a responsible citizen. Many times within this time we wanted to put them in the trash due to frustration. I hope this bit of information will save anyone who wants to remove popcorn ceiling themselves in the future from disposal frustration, and help keep the environment clean.

Re-finance and foreclosure protection.

California has protected homeowners from deficiency liability from their home mortgage since the 1930s, but this protection only applies to "purchase money" loans (ie. the loan one took out when he/she bought the hosue).

When the homeonwers re-financed to take advantage of lower interest rates in recent years, for examples, they lost the legal protections and may be personally liable for the difference between the value of foreclosed property and the amount owed to the lender.

Under current law, the lenders have up to ten years to collect this deficiency liability, which could means the family could potentially be paying the debt even years after they lost their home.