Welcome to the Sanford REI Financing and Closing Costs Page! Financing is vital unless you are a Cash buyer. We have a few names of very highly skilled mortgage people we can refer to you in order to get you pre-qualified. You will need a Pre-Qualification letter from a bank or mortgage broker to submit any real estate offer in the State of Connecticut unless you are a Cash Buyer. If you are a Cash Buyer, you will need a “Proof of Funds” statement dated within the last 30 days from your bank when submitting your offer. You may block out Social Security numbers, account numbers and other transactions located on your Proof of Funds Statement. Most real estate agents or brokers need to see your name, the bank’s name, the date on the statement and the amount clearly in the account. If you need to use multiple banks to show the amount you need to support your cash offer, then you will need to submit the POF Statement from each bank.
As far as Down Payments and Closing Costs are concerned, most people believe they need 20-30% to put down on a house. WRONG! Many times, you will need as little as 3 to 3 ½% to put down and of that, only as little as $1000 for your initial deposit! Heck, there may be VA programs out there where you may be able to get 100% Financing! Just remember, that if you are using a VA Loan, you must get a VA Certification Letter to submit with your offer and these things can take some time to get so get on that right away! If you have fair or not so good credit, no problem! The financing professionals I deal with can work with you to show you what you have to do to get your credit score up so you can then get pre-qualified! There IS hope! YOU CAN DO IT!

Many people have heard of the FHA 1st Time Home Buyer’s Program however, they also believe that once you use your “1st Time Homebuyer” option, that’s it! WRONG! Did you know in Connecticut, you can still qualify to use your 1st Time Homebuyer option AGAIN as long as you haven’t owned any property for 3 years!!! You may be renting and thinking “Geeze, I can’t afford to buy a house or condo right now”. Maybe not! However, maybe you CAN afford to buy and don’t even know it!

What about Closing Costs? Many of you probably think – “Boy oh boy, I am also going to need $1,000s to close too! WRONG! Did you know that virtually every property I represented a buyer on, I made the seller pay for most, if not all of the closing costs! The few exceptions were Short Sales. Short Sales are extremely difficult to get the bank to pay for closing costs since they are already losing $1,000s if not 10s of $1,000s of dollars. Flipped properties, properties that another investor bought, fixed it up really nice and now wants to resell it, can also be very difficult to get them to pay closing costs but it is possible. So let me help you save more money at closing!

The mortgage brokers we refer to you have worked with the attorneys we can also refer to you so there is a familiarity there between them and that should help you get your deal done more efficiently! As with Legal Counsel or any other area of real estate, you always have the right to choose your own mortgage broker or legal counsel to represent you.

Please complete the Contact Form and include a date and time we can meet at your home for about an hour to set you up on the MLS so you can get daily emails of properties you want to see, discuss closing costs, down payments and financing in more detail!   We look forward to working with you!  John Sanford – Managing Member of Sanford REI.