California Mortgage Blog

Part-Time Jobs, Second Jobs and Your Mortgage Application I remember thumbing through the Recycler in Los Angeles when I first moved out there as a teenager.  Living on a shoestring budget, I was especially intrigued by the ads that promised the ability to make thousands per month while sitting i...

Can Income from Your Vacation Rental Help You Qualify for a Mortgage? Ok.  I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that someone reading this post has, at one point in his/her life, taken an Uber to an AirBnB.  It makes sense and it's a perfect exemplification of the "gig economy" working in bo...

What Is an Alternative Mortgage? Every so often in popular music, movies, art and culture, the unconventional becomes the rage, the "alternative" becomes mainstream.  When it does, it usually reshapes people's ideas of what's "normal" and it can redefine what's acceptable --- even preferred --- f...

Howdy, Partner!  How's the Income Look on Your Mortgage Application? I don't care how successful your S-Corporation or partnership may be.  When you go to get a home loan, there will be a new sheriff in town --- your mortgage lender.  So before your loan process gets hung up at high noon, I thoug...

Form 1098 and Your Mortgage Interest Statement "At first you go bankrupt slowly, and then all at once."  This quote has been attributed to Ernest Hemingway, Mark Twain and even F. Scott Fitzgerald.  Indeed, it's a great one, though fortunately I cannot personally attest to its veracity.  Neverthe...

What Kind of Insurance Do You Need When You Buy a House? Let me start by saying that I'm not in the insurance business, but that the insurance business is in mine.  And my business is helping home buyers and homeowners get a great mortgage.  So just what are the insurance requirements when you bu...

Conforming a Little More Each Year If you know me, you know that I don't like to stick to convention.  I was the teenager who skipped college, moved to Hollywood and played rock guitar.  In my 20's, I saved up vacation time not for sandy white beaches but instead for expeditions to the harsh moun...

Are Your California Property Taxes On Supplements? Are you one of the 77% of U.S. adults who takes some form of nutritional supplement?  If so, you've contributed to the estimated $31 billion dollars of revenue that this industry generated in 2018.  So it stands to reason that California counties...

The Yin and Yang of Mortgages for Business Owners It is no secret that the self-employed have their share of challenges when it comes to getting a home loan. And why wouldn't they? On one hand, their tax professionals spend hours maximizing their deductions and helping them "write off" every allo...

OK Boomer, You Don't Need 20% Down Bound to happen from time to time in the digital age, a saying goes viral --- in this case, "OK, boomer," --- which is meant to expose a close-minded or out-of-touch opinion, thought or mindset of one generation by another (I'll let you figure out the age demogr...