How a Watsonville Teacher Bought her First Home for $2000

Nobody is more deserving to be a home owner in Santa Cruz County than our teachers.  As a former teacher, I great pleasure from helping teachers purchase their first home.  Heidi works as special education teacher in Watsonville and her husband works for Good Will Industries in Santa Cruz.  They were able to qualify for a fantastic program called an 80/17 through CALSTRS (California State Teachers Retirement System) The 80 means an 80% of the purchase price is a first loan. This is a fixed rate, 30 year mortgage at a competitive rate. The 17% is also a fixed rate mortgage at the same rate.  The kicker is that that the home buyer doesn't make payments on the second loan for the first 5 years of the loan. This gives the buyers 5 years to get used to their current payment and prepare for an increased payment.   There are no surprises or variable rates.

The remaining 3 % (80+17+3=100) is the down payment.  This means that 3% of the purchase price must come from the buyers for the down payment. In addition to the down payment there were about $10,000 in closing costs for title, escrow, and lender fees plus prepaid taxes, hazard insurance and mortgage interest. We were all thrilled when the seller agreed to pay the closing costs so really the only out of pocket expense was the 3% down payment.  This one happened to be a short sale, so it was the seller's lender, Chase, who actually approved the $10,000 credit for the buyer's closing costs.  They will also be getting $8500 back from the IRS for the first time credit, so really their true cost was about $2000!

This was not a subprime loan. This was not a variable rate mortgage. This is a fixed rate mortgage on very nice, ten year old, 3 bedroom 2.5 bath home with a nice yard and a 2 car garage for $2000!

For more information on this loan program drop me a line!

-Mike