Contra Costa County Real Estate

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Avoid the inconvenience and added expense of moving into a rental home in between selling your current home and buying another suitable property. Now move-up buyers can find relief with an affordable and flexible financing strategy. By obtaining an equity line of credit secured by your current home, you can position yourself to find the right home without the worry of not having enough time to sell your home and find another. This financing strategy for your down payment offers many advantages such as a loan fee of no more than $1,000, borrow up to 90% of the value of your current home, pay no interest until you use the loan to finance the down payment of your new home, pay off the loan from the proceeds of the sale of your current home plus this loan is available to borrowers with a less-than-perfect credit history.  Follow these key steps to find out if this strategy will work for you: 

• Contact a local real estate professional to assist you with determining the current fair market value of your home. Your Realtor will provide a comparative market analysis (CMA) of recent sales of similar homes in your neighborhood.

• Subtract the existing loan amount from the current value of your home to determine your equity. Most banks will allow an equity line of credit up to 90% of the appraised value behind your existing loan.

• Apply for the equity line of credit

• Apply for a new loan for the purchase of your next home.

Once the loans are approved for the equity line of credit and the new loan for the purchase of your next home, add the sum total of the two loans to determine your top purchase price range. Now you are ready to begin the home search and when you find the right home, your purchase offer will not need the contingency to sell your current home as a condition of completing the sale of the new home. Once your offer has been accepted by the seller and you are confident that you want to complete the sale, list your current home for sale to minimize the time period of owning one home too many.  The equity line of credit secured against your current home is paid off at the close of escrow as well as the existing first loan. This strategy gives you the peace of mind to take your time to find the right home and the confidence that your financing is pre-approved when you need it.