How To Anticipate Your Down Payment Before Shopping For Real Estate in Southern California

You typically have two options for buying a house: paying cash or getting financing. With Orange County, CA home prices as high as they are now, most people take the latter approach.
But financing your home with a mortgage means you must first come up with the down payment. How much house you want to buy and what state your personal finances are in will affect your down payment, so what can you expect your down payment to be? First, you’ll need to know your loan options and the cost of the property.
Loan Options
For a mortgage, anyone can apply for a conventional loan. To qualify for financing, you’ll need a good-to-excellent credit score, and you can expect to pay about 20% for your down payment. If you have stellar finances, this percentage could be lower.
But if paying 20% of a house’s price isn’t realistic, you might be able to qualify for low-down payment loans. VA loans can be helpful for servicemembers, veterans, and their families as they require no down payment. FHA loans are available to all prospective homeowners, and your down payment could be only 3.5%.
The Home Price
Home prices are a significant consideration when shopping for real estate. But you may find a perfect home for an amount you think is reasonable, only to figure out that you can’t come up with the required funds. In this case, your options are to have someone help you in the form of gift money, which can help you close the difference between what you have and what you need. If you’re not quite able to come up with the amount you need and you don’t qualify for a mortgage, you might want to consider focusing on your savings with a future down payment in mind.

Best California Mortgages is a full service real estate and mortgage company. We are local to California and provide personalized service and have access to private and big money lenders at a fraction of the cost you would pay anywhere else. Contact us for a free consultation and we offer a no impact to your credit pre qualification at no cost to you. Contact us at 714-477-1515 or visit the contact us page to send us an email.