Bernadette Ramirez

How Much House Can I Afford?
November 14, 2011 · · 3 Comments

Well that depends…. how are you planning on purchasing your home? Do you have cash? Are you planning on getting a loan; if so, have you received a pre-qualification letter from your lender yet? Once you establish the way you will be funding the purchase of your home then we can figure out which steps you will need to complete to accomplish this.

Cash is pretty self explanatory. Lets talk about financing a bit. A serious buyer, in need of a loan to purchase a home will need to contact their lender for a pre-qualification letter. This is most often wanted, to be included in your offer package, when submitting to the banks in a short sale, reo and even Sellers in a regular sale. If you are in need of a lender remember, to make things easier on you, Prudential San Bruno, has a really good Mortage Company relationship that works  in house , Guarantee Mortgage 650.589.1000.  What else can I say but they are nothing less than awesome!

 Actually getting a pre-approval often times can speed the home buying process up. Your lender will need to evaluate your debt to income ratio in order to establish how much house you can actually afford.    Read more

Shokoofeh Nowbakht

Evaluation of Rental Property
June 2, 2009 · · 7 Comments

for-rentHow do you evaluate a rental property?
There are many formulas to calculate different income ratios, various expenses and taxes you incur as a landlord. The first thing you should pay close attention to is the existing leases. Find out the current rents, the remaining lease terms and the annual increase in rents for every unit. It is very important to determine how these rents compare to the rents for similar properties in the area?    Read more

Kathy Wall

Rent Control – Out of Control
December 31, 2008 · · 3 Comments

I have an elderly client who purchased a home in San Francisco’s Sunset District many years ago.   A few years after the purchase, he and his wife decided to move to Marin and rented the house out to a “friend.”  

It’s now about 30 years later and my client desperately needs to sell the home so that he can keep up with ongoing medical bills.   You see, his wife had a very bad stroke while on an airplane about 8 years ago and, a year later, ended up with kidney failure.   She’s been in a wheelchair and on dialysis ever since.  Sadly, they had no insurance at the time of his wife’s stroke and certainly can’t get any now, so he’s been borrowing on the San Francisco house in order to keep up with her numerous and never ending expenses.   Now, the payments are ballooning up to a point that he can no longer afford to pay them. Read more

Lee Ginsburg

Learning to Budget! Kudos To The Teacher.
December 28, 2008 · · 6 Comments

As many of you are aware my Prudential office in San Bruno, Ca. is the largest single independent Prudential office in the country.  We are very progressive and have kiosk in several of the regional malls in the area.  As I had my shift just before the holidays, a young boy, I’d say about 12 or 13 was looking at some listings.  I let him look for a while and then approached.  He told me he was 30 years old and looking for a rental for his family of 4 with a $60,000 annual income.  I did a double take and he explained he had a home work assignment to balance a family budget including housing.  I helped him find a few rental homes in the area.  The reason for me writing about this, I thought it was a great assignment; Reality, Life.   I think this should be taught in detail to all high school seniors and to all purchasing a home.  I believe saving should be part of a family budget.  The savings could be for a down payment, home maintenance, vacation, rainy day, etc.  Read more